Warcraft IV: Shadow and Light
by Illidan123
Summary: My version of what will happen during Warcaft IV. Set after 15 years after World of Warcraft. What if the Burning Legion invaded again? Will they succeed? CURRENTLY IN HIATUS, but please review this story!
1. Book 1: Prologue

Prologue

It was a dark night, Morg the orc thought. He was one of the Bloodwolf Regiment, stationed here at Flamebane Hold, a small outpost just 10 miles from the edge of Ashenvale Forest. Morg gulped. Although they are at peace with the night elves there for more than 10 years, he still feared them. The night elves were once members of the Alliance and therefore had raided Horde territories many times, including this outpost itself. But after the Outland Wars and the increasing size of the Maelstrom, during which the Elves were severed the Alliance as none of their communication could get through, they had grudgingly signed a Declaration of Peace against the Horde. That peace contract started a new era, an era of peace and prosperity in Kalimdor. Whatever race they were, whether they were humans of Theramore, orcs of Durotar, night elves of Darnassus or even trolls of Dustwallow Marsh, they prospered.

Morg stared out into the darkness from his watchtower, he shivered again. Something or someone was out there, his instincts have never failed him, yet. He thought of calling to the other watchtower and ask what they could see, but dismissed the thought as soon as he thought of it, asking the troll on the other tower would just make him more uneasy about this night. If there was another more troublesome troll he had yet to meet them. The young troll scout, J'ingan Scarhead was recently transferred here in preparation for the arrival of Tyranda Whisperwind, the night elf High Priestess. This was another reason Morg was nervous, the only time he has ever seen the Priestess before was 16 years ago at the Battle of Stonehall Field when the Horde and Alliance was still fighting. The priestess used her awesome powers to call upon stars which fell from the sky and slew many of Morg's finest warriors. But that was all in the past now…

Suddenly there came a scream of terror.Morg turned around immediately and saw the other look-out post in flames. Following his instinct Morg reached into his belt quickly and withdraw a small horn, crafted from the horns of a centaur he killed years ago. He blew as hard as he can onto it and immediately he heard the running footsteps of orcs and trolls running out of their rooms. But who could the attackers be?

Just as he wondered that he heard a sneering voice behind him. "Surrender greenskin or you shall face the wrath of the Sin'Dorei!" Morg turned slowly around; there is a humanoid with long ears riding some type of flying beast with a long flowing tail, nothing more could be made out in the darkness of the night. Morg thought that the word Sin'Dorei was familiar, but since he never bothered to learn about any other language other than Orcish even if he knew he still wouldn't know what it means. As he thought he took his trusty throwing axe from his belt and raised it above his head into a throwing position. However the elf-like creature merely laughed and from somewhere in his hand conjured up a glowing blood-red orb. He throws the orb effortlessly onto the support of the small wooden tower and as it made contact, the structure collapsed as though it was made out of water. Morg's eyes were round with surprise as he fell, and he knows no more…


	2. B1: Chapter 1

Here's the first chapter, not very exciting. Plenty of actions in the next chapter though.

**Disclaimer**: I dont own any Warcraft related things, they are Blizzard's. I created some of the characters though.

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Chapter 1: Of Elves and Murlocs

Grommash Hold, Orgrimmar, Year 35

Inside the Council Chamber of Grommash Hold there was a great round table, sat around it were the various chieftains and advisors to Thrall, Warchief of the Horde and Lord of the Clans, who sat on a great throne with two white wolves carved on its side. Despite the image of a proud group of orcs discussing trade or other matters of state, they were arguing about the correct way to respond to the burning of Flamebane Hold and the death of at least 70 orcs and trolls.

"The night elves attacked our outpost and they must face the consequences!" shouted one of the chieftains of the orc clans.

"There is no evidence that they did, Brungar." said Thrall, Warchief of the Orcish Horde, who seemed the only one to be speaking calmly.

"Well, if you don't share my belief, Warchief, I withdraw my clan from the services of the Horde!" Brungar said violently and walked proudly away from the Great Hall with several of his bodyguards.

Other chieftains murmured for a while but didn't continue the argument, clearly they though Brungar had gone too far.

Thrall sighed, Brungar was not the first one to be angered by the raid on Flamebane Hold and nor is he the first on to withdraw his clan, the Warsong Clan and the Bleeding Hollow Clan already did just that. He looked up towards the other chieftains and dismissed them but he motioned Baine Bloodhoof, leader of the Taurens and Vol'jin, leader of the Jungle Trolls living in Dustwallow Marsh, to him.

"Baine? I need you to go back to your people and arm yourself and also contact Rexxar, he should be near Mulgore, that's where his last message came from." said Thrall.

"Yes Warchief." Baine said and left.

"Vol'jin, I need you to arm yourselves also. But if you could also deliver this message to Lady Proudmoore at Theramore Isles it would be very much appreciated." Handing Vol'jin a letter sealed with the sign of Horde.

"Of course, mon, ya weesh is mey command." and he left as well.

Thrall sat back down onto his throne, there were two great wolves engraved onto the two sides, signifying Thrall's heritage as a member of the Frostwolf Clan. His mind was in turmoil as he sat pondering. _Who could have attacked Flamebane Hold? Who had killed more than 70 soldiers and reduced the Hold to ruins?_ Thrall sat there wondering at all the questions. The two clans that had withdrawn their service to the Horde had already armed themselves and now camped just 2 miles from the edge of the Ashenvale Forest. If Brungar's Shattered Hand Clan joined them as well, they would have a force of more than 5000 orcs, not counting the Taurens, ogres, trolls and the mercenaries they hired. Just as Thrall was still brooding over the troubles of his land, the great door to the hall was pushed open.

Looking at the figure who had entered the hall, Thrall smiled for the first time in days. It was Durokar, his son whom he had recalled from the south where he was subjugating the centaur clans. Durokar was born 18 years ago, but his identity was hidden for his first 3 years for fear of Alliance assassins.

"Father, I saw Brungar as he was leaving the city with most of his clan, what was he doing?" Durokar said quickly, getting straight to the point, he had never bothered to deal with the formalities.

Thrall said quietly: "He had withdrawn his clan from the Horde and he would very probably join the Warsongs at Ashenvale." Merely saying the word Warsong made Thrall's heart heavy, his greatest friend Grom Hellscream was once the leader of the clan before he died. "If you are not tired son, I would like you travel there too and investigate the mysterious attack, and if possible, try to persuade the clans to not attack Ashenvale. I would go myself but I need to be here to calm the rest of the clans down."

"Of course father."

"Becareful when you are there, there may be hidden enemies in the north. Rokar-nath-karon!"

"Rokar-nath-karon!"

"Durokar, we should arrive in the port of Nakor in 2 hours at the most, from there we would reach Flamebane Hold in a day." said Garlon, an old but not necessary weak orc who had accompanied Durokar on most of his missions said to Durokar as they rode through the Barrens with a small group of the elite Wolfguards.

Good." muttered Durokar. He looked around at the 15 Wolfguards that had been specially assigned to him, the only orc he knows in this company was Garlon, and this made him strangely nervous.

More than one and half hour later, Durokar and his Guards finally rode through the port of Nakor. It was a small port, built to supply the Horde with supplies during the Cold War when the night elves and orcs fought brutally further north. As he rode past, Durokar noticed that there are several band of orcs armed with axes and spears heading north. They must be the dissented orcs from other clans coming to join the Warsongs.

Just as the small group stopped for some food, a great horn was heard from the harbor. Soon cries of "Murlocs" were all Durokar could hear. Murlocs, why would they be here? They were fish-like humanoids that had barely enough intelligence to recognize an enemy or ally. Whatever they are up to here, the reason can't be good.

Durokar ran towards the harbor. There he saw something he had never saw before, a giant bluish Murloc standing alone on the beach, just standing there; it didn't even have a blade in its hands! The harbor guards are holding their distance from the Murloc, just in case it is some kind of trick up its sleeves. But Durokar approached slowly towards it. The Murloc did nothing but stare at Durokar as he reached touching distance. And then the Murloc said the fateful words: "I am, sheeesh, the chief of Spinebreak Murlocs, we from blue sea on island."

Fear and curiosity rang through the head of every orcs present. A Murloc speaking orcish, actually speaking orcish! That was unheard of!

As though unaware of the alarmed orcs and the true magnitude of what he just said, the Murloc pressed on. "Many tides ago, a Pink-Skin Seer visited our island, he foretold that our isle would be consumed by blood and, shich, that we would wander, until we meet a warrior race, green and strong they would be, they would be called orcses, they would helps us. The Seer taught us orcses' language and left." Then he just stared at Durokar, as though waiting for an answer.

After some moments of consideration, Durokar asked the Murloc: "This Pink-Skin Seer you talked about, is he a human?"

"He said he used to be one, shilsh, but hesh not now."At this words, Durokar remembered something, something that his father told him... _ The Prophet was once a human, a very powerful human, according to the Theramore Archives. It was because of him we survived Durokar, without him we would have been consumed by the Burning Legion._ Those were his father's words, could the Seer be the Prophet?

"Was your isle really invaded then?"

"Long-ears, with red armor and burning eyes, hish, they invaded, they slaughtered our people." The Murloc said quietly.

_Long ears, the survivors reported elf-like creatures, could they have attacked our outpost?_ "Murloc, are you prepared to lead us to your island?"

"Yesh, but my tribesmen must be safe, they are in the small islet by the woods."

"That can be arranged."

* * *

Bonus Profile: Durokar

Son of Warchief Thrall and Yare Netherhunter, born 18 years before the event of this fanfic. His birth was kept a close guarded secret until when he is 3, for fear of Alliance assasins. His mother was killed during a ferocious Alliance attack on Orgrimmar. He learnt the art of combat from both the shamans and the Blademasters, excelling at both. His weapon of choice is a battleaxe made from thorium.


	3. B1: Chapter 2

New chapter! R&R plz!  


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Chapter II: Isle of Blood

Somewhere near the Maelstrom, The Great Sea, Year 35  


Durokar's small ship rocked in the waves as they came ever nearer to the Great Maelstrom, the eternal storm. Durokar only brought his Wolfguards, five harbour workers who knew how to sail, as well as the Murloc chief, they could easily be overwhelmed by their enemies on the isle, a fact that Garlon the old veteran kept repeating to Durokar.

"Murloc, is your island actually in the Maelstrom?" asked Durokar nervously, the Maelstrom was the only thing he really feared.

"No, no, isle just outside, shishen." said the Murloc, whose name seem to be Tel'poho'xitax, but Durokar still referred to him as Murloc, much easier he thought.

A while later they sighted the island. It was a large flat isle, with a small mountain in the middle surrounded by a thin layer of forest. Garlon persuaded Durokar to sail around the island before attempt to land, but they saw nothing, except an endless beach.

"Becarefuls, enemy hidden, they everywhere." said the Murloc quietly, he had become increasingly subdued as they came ever nearer to the island.

"They must be really good at hiding." muttered Durokar, then he spoke a bit louder "We'll land there, beside the large outcrop. May the spirits be with us."

The ship landed on the shore without incident, nothing stirred, not even the island wildlife, in fact the island doesn't look like it has any form of animals at all, let along an army of potentially hostile elfin creatures. However one thing puzzled Durokar, while the sea around the island was rough and stormy, as were expected of the sea this close to the Maelstrom, there were no rains or clouds above the island. After glancing at the surroundings Durokar said "I'm going to windwalk to the forest to scout around. Garlon, make sure everyone is hidden, just in case."

Garlon made a deep bow before starting to shout orders at the soldiers.

Durokar concentrated his mana onto his body and after a faint fizzing noise, he disappeared. He sprinted quickly towards the forest, a task made a lot easier by the wind-walk spell. The forest was surprisingly dense and allows very little visibility, more than once Durokar had mistook dead trees for enemies. Just as he is about to give up and go back, he heard a strange voice from somewhere behind him.

"Ish-hun-trise, non-ish, hint-un-ilch-nu…" Said an urgent voice, although Durokar does not understand it, he thought it was familiar, something he heard before… Suddenly the speaker was cut off by a more rough voice.

"Shush, il-ne-orches-magis," the voice suddenly switched to Orcish "I know you are out there orc sorcerer, your so called spirit powers might shield you from our eyes, but the Winnowed Ones will find you easily…" The person who had spoken let out a cruel laugh and uttered a single unintelligible word, there came from behind Durokar the sound of turning of locks and strange shouts filled the air. Durokar ran, ran towards what hopefully might be the edge of the forest. Suddenly a hand grabbed him around his left shoulder. _How can it be? I should be invisible! _He thought just before he turned around and saw a being that has not been seen in Azeroth for at least 15 years, a Sin'Dori, a Blood Elf. But it was not a normal Blood Elf, it was worse, a Blood Elf that was consumed by his magic, a Winnowed One. A Winnowed One could detect any signs of magic, even the powers of sprits. Durokar know what would happen next if he didn't struggle away from the creature quickly, it would burn off the mana from inside Durokar, condemning him to a painful death

Durokar punched the creature in the face, ineffective it might be against this creature, but it serves as a good distraction. He raised his battle-axe and with one swipe ended the Blood Elf's pitiful life. Just before the axe cleaved off the creature's head, Durokar saw its burning eyes, its darkened skin that were so unlike its High Elf ancestors and the veins that were burning with rage, for a brief moment, he felt pity for the Blood Elves. Durokar spared one more glance at the corpse before running towards the edge of the forest again. His mind was racing as he ran. _Blood elves, where could they have come from? The last time those traitors had been seen they were sealing off the Dark Portal, could that had been opened again? No, that's impossible; they couldn't have crossed the Maelstrom…_

Suddenly light blared out of the sky as Durokar ran out into the open, he could just make out in the distance his small ship. He concentrated his mana again and he was invisible once more, however this time he cast it not because he want to hide, but because he need the extra speed from the spell to get to the ship faster to warn the others. When he was about halfway to the ship, he heard shouts from behind him. He doubled his speed, the chase was on.

---

"Milord, we've sighted orcs at the beach, one of them even encountered our escort groups in the forest, and he escaped from a Winnowed One! I've sent our best warriors to eliminate them, but they seem prepared, their ship isn't wrecked or damaged." said a tall figure in perfect Sin'drassi in a small clearing in the forest.

"Well Ishdin, I told you to have add defences to the coast, everyone in Kalimdor could have swam here without you noticing." said a voice from inside a large tent.

"Nobody in their right mind would have come here, milord, its too close to the Maelstrom and," The figure called Ishdin stuttered for a moment before continuing, "and there's the nagas beneath the waves, they would have destroyed any ships coming near here."

"Your excuses are getting worse every time Ishdin, if it weren't for your services to my father I would have fed you to the dragonhawks long ago. Sometimes I think even H'ch could have done a better job than you…" The tent opened and a strange yet imposing figure slithered out. Its upper body was like a normal Blood Elf, except that it was more muscled and something like gills was on its face, however it has no legs and in its place was long large tail, not unlike the tail of a naga. His name was Prince Furiden Darkstrider, the Flamemaker, Lord of Outland, Master of Demons, the titles that were bequeathed upon him by his people were endless.

"Make sure the portal is secured while I'm dealing with the intruders, Ishdin, if even a rat gets near it I will personally escort you to the Temple."

Ishdin's voice started to stutter again at the mention of the Temple. "Of c-course, m-milord…"

Prince Furiden smiled, Ishdin is easily intimidated. He muttered a few arcane words full of magic and he disappeared in a flash of flame.

He could feel the magic coursing through his veins, the infinite opportunities that it offered to him, he could do anything, nothing would stop him… Furiden opened his eyes, magic always did that to him, as with all Blood Elf sorcerers, but the experience with teleporting magic is especially strong. He looked around him, he was on the beach and Blood Elf warriors were everywhere. This was expected, as he had attuned his teleport spell to the Elite Brigade.

"Prince Furiden." said a rough voice from beside him.

"Ah, Lieutenant Jorn, where are the orcs?"

"They had escaped in their ship, but we captured one of them, although he's not the leader." The lieutenant pointed to a green figure lying on the sand with bruises all on him before continuing "Should we give chase Milord? Our ships would easily outsail them."

Prince Furiden replied coldly "There's no need, the naga would kill them for us."

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Bonus Profile: Blood Elves and the Outland War

When the Dark Portal was finally opened after months of preparation, every Blood Elf in Azeroth marched into it, seeking their destiny. But when they discovered Prince Kael'thas had made a pact with the Burning Legion, many were disgusted and set up camp in the Hellfire Peninsula to wage war upon him, but also enough crazed Blood Elves joined Kael'thas so that the 2 side is evenly matched. When the Alliance and the Horde realised the true magnetitude of the situation their armies joined the so called 'sane' Blood Elves in their war. One by one the citadels of Illidan fell, one by one his lieutenants were defeated, until a massive ground battle occured just outside the Black Temple. As the fierce battle raged, a small group of Blood Elves loyal to Illidan Stormrage sneaked in to the Horde base just beside the Dark Portal, the Horde soldiers were celebrating, for news had reached them that Illidan Stormrage is defeated. The small group of Blood Elves cast a powerful spell upon the Portal and it started to close, by the time the Horde soldiers realised what is happening, it is already too late. At the same time, demons rained from the sky of Outland, dooming forever the souls of the brave soldiers. Only one person escaped from the catastrophe, a gnome rogue, and only from him can the true story of the last moments of the Outland War be told.


	4. B1: Chapter 3

Sorry for the long time when there was no update, but here's the new chapter! as promised there will be some revelations and a small cliffhanger at the end. R&R plz!

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Chapter 3: Terror of the Deeps

Somewhere near the Maelstrom, The Great Sea, Year 35

A lucky escape, thought Durokar, although they had lost Rotax to elves and sustained several injuries himself. He looked around him, his fellow orcs were saddened after the loss of their comrade, but with determination on their faces, for they know that impossible has happened, the Blood Elves has returned, and possibly the Burning Legion too.

So engrossed were the orcs in their own thoughts, that nobody noticed a small whirlpool ahead of them.

---

An orc with blood all over him slumped against a tree. He had been tortured with the vilest spells and the most painful tools known to the Blood Elves, until he finally broke and divulged all his secrets to his captors.

"So orc, would you like to suffer more? Would like to suffer more?" a cruel voice said from the somewhere in the darkness.

"No… please no!" shouted the broken orc with what left of his strength.

"My Prince is a generous one, he will let you live and we will transport you back to the mainland, and all he demands is one little thing…"

"I will do it! I promise!"

"Very well, Rashkin! Prepare a ship, the orc is going home."

---

They never knew what happened, the whirlpool expanded at such a rate that the ship almost immediately fell into its grasp. As the orcs struggled to keep afloat a strange sound came from beneath the waves, a sound that calmed them, a sound that sounded so beautiful that the orcs forgot everything. And with the last note of the strange song all the orcs blacked out.

Strange scaly hands erupted from the sea, they grabbed the orcs and ripped the ship apart; there can be no evidence of their involvement. The strange creatures carried the orcs down towards their lair, a large cave system at the bottom if the sea bed. Before they got very far however, another serpentine creature suddenly appeared from. This one carried a huge trident and is clearly the largest amongst them.

The larger naga looked quite agitated, as he brandished his trident threatenly at the other group of naga, all the while emitting a faint rasping noise. The other group of naga were also emitting the rasping noise, although much quieter.

After a while the larger naga made an impossibly high-pitched noise which seemingly stopped the other nagas from speaking. The nagas then followed the larger naga, albeit hesitantly, towards another cave system.

---

Durokar woke up in a small cave with none of his companions. He looked around and saw that he is in fact underground, as evident by the stalactites littering across the cave. There was a small entrance just big enough for an orc to go through, but as he walked towards it a monstrous head suddenly appeared at the entrance. The monster said something unintelligible in a raspy tongue, rather like the sound of the Murloc.

Durokar did not dare answer, he merely waited.

"Followssss me young orcsss… the… master wishesssss to meetss you…."said the creature again.

Cautiously he walked towards the entrance but stopped as he realised what that monster was: _a naga. _But his curiosity finally got the better of him and continued towards the entrance.

Durokar half-expected to emerge into a lake or the sea, but when he finally clambered out of the tunnel he saw it emerged into a large chamber with a small pool of water in the middle. And stood beside the tunnels were two naga Royal Guards, their bright scales and their larger than normal fins signalled prominence amongst the naga societies.

Just beside the lake there was a rough stone table and smaller lump of rocks around it apparently used for chairs. Standing beside the rocks stood, or slithered, a large serpentine figure, bigger than even the Royal Guards. Durokar presumed him to be someone important, like the personal sorcerer of Azshara, the Queen of the Nagas or some leader of individual naga expeditionary forces sent out to retake the outside world.

Before Durokar could deduce any more out of the imposing naga it spoke, not Nazjatari as he had expected, but Common, or rather Common with a few strange elvish words mixed within, but Durokar had known enough Darnassian to understand those. "Welcomess young orc, I trust that my _associates _have not damaged you in anyway?"

"Why would care about an orc like me, Naga? And where are my _associates_?"

"Well letss just say that my master would not be pleased if you were harmed, and your friendsss are very well."

"If your master does not wish to harm us, why did you destroy our ship?"

"Well said young orc, and may I correct you? My master doesss not wish us to harm you, not your associatesss. And it is not by our master's order that you were captured. It's that idiot Varo'then," the naga spoke that name with disdain "who ordered your unfortunate capture. No doubt he wished to capture you as bait for the Blood Elvesss... My mastersss sensed your capture and sent me to see that you came to no harm"

"But you were allied to the Blood Elves!" exclaimed Durokar, who only by now realised that he had somehow sat down on one of the stone chairs. _Must have been the naga's magic, _he thought as the words left his mouth.

"Only those of Lady Vashj's group, they were foolsss to follow the Burning Legion… And thisss bringsss us to another topic my master wished to discussss withss you. My master's power is incomparable to your mere mortal's imagination, and because of this my master has detected, nay, foretold the return of the Burning Legion. They are coming back, portalsss are opening in secret across this world. And so desperate are the Burning Legion to conquer this world, they have linked one end of the Twisting Nether, yesss one entire end of the Twisting Nether to a portal in Northrend so that more demons could pour through at once! In fact this would be the key to their defeat, my master told me, if you destroy that portal, the entire Twisting Nether will be isolated! Unable to conquer any worldsss any more!"

Durokar listened with growing dread, here is the confirmation to something he had been dreading ever since he saw that Blood Elf. However something in the naga's statement made him cringe… "Why would you tell this to me? Why would you warn me? And your masters are the Old Gods! They would benefit if the Burning Legion purged all life from this world!"

The naga smiled, albeit it created a rather chilling effect with the naga's sharp teeth and snake-like tongues. "Excellent questionsss, excellent, I can see my master's wisdom… I don't know exactly why you are important, although my master hinted that you will be somehow vital to the Burning Legion's defeatssss. And my mastersss would not benefit from the Burning Legion; they are nothing like our mastersss!"

Slightly calmed by the naga's word, Durokar rose up to ask another question, but the word went out of Durokar's throat as the naga waved his scaly hand. "You will know no more, you already know enough to decide what actionsss you will take. Come, your companionsss has been cared for and we will lead you orcss through a tunnel which I believe will lead you to one of your outpostsss."

Deciding to trust the naga Durokar followed him towards another tunnel, and in surprisingly short time reached another large chamber. There he saw Garlon and the Murloc, they cast suspicious glances at the naga beside Durokar beside him before shouted at Durokar a greeting, clearly their ordeal was not as pleasant as Durokar's. After checking that everyone was alright Durokar inspected the equipments and provisions the nagas had left on the floor, although there were no axes or swords so favoured by the orcs, but instead there were tridents, spears and daggers. The nagas left after pointing out the tunnel where the orcs must travel, as Durokar led the orcs towards it, he realised he did not even find out he name of his captor.

After what seemed to be days to the orcs, they finally emerged from a cave into the heat of the Barrens. In the distance they could just make out a small outpost, they cheered. But as they moved towards it, one of the orcs suddenly shouted: "There's a body there! Look, by the sea!"

When the orcs finally reached the body, they were all very surprised. "By the Spirit of Doomhammer! It's Rotax! He's alive!" exclaimed a young orc. And on the neck of the body hung a small horn on a necklace.


	5. B1: Chapter 4

This is a buildup to the next chapter so there isnt much stuff here. but still R&R plz!

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Chapter 4: An Eye in the Shadow

Centaurmane Keep, The Barrens, Year 35

A small orcish outpost lay just ahead of them; it was a small one, not much bigger than the old Sen'jin Village. Only when a small group of wolf-riders wearing a very distinctive cape came out of the keep did Durokar finally realised the name of the outpost, Centaurmane Keep, so named because of the number of centaur manes hanging inside the outpost and the cape of its defenders, made from centaur skins. As the wolf-riders neared, one of them, riding a huge white-wolf, called out: "Who goes there!" whilst moving his huge warblade in a threatening fashion. This act was not surprising, as this part of the Barrens is still filled with centaurs and what remained of the demon worshipping Burning Blade clan.

Durokar replied calmly: "This is Durokar, son of Thrall, your Warchief. I was leading an expedition to an island when we were shipwrecked, only to wake up here. If you would give us shelter for the night, it will be very much appreciated." Durokar felt that telling the truth to the orc captain was not such a good idea.

The orc captain muttered quietly something about security and centaurs before motioning them to join them. As they passes he looked at the limp figure carried by 2 orcs. Seeing his curiosity on his eye Durokar replied "He's one of our injured, have you got and healers in your outpost?"

"Of course, we got a shaman, his name is Rash'kan. It's just that the horn looks like one of those centaur horns that they blow before they go into battle."

"I've noticed that too, but even my strongest warriors can't remove it. I know some of the shaman arts but my attempts were simply deflected by the horn. Maybe your shaman would know what the horn does."

As the procession moved towards Centaurmane Keep, an eye-shaped orb floated just above a small mound beside the Keep, it was staring intently at the newcomers, especially at the unconscious orc.

---

"It was just as the master predicted! That orc would disable the shaman magic protecting the Keep, the Eye proves it! The centaurs would be pleased, they were desperate to attack that keep." said a wizened warlock with burning orbs for eyes. His name was Ch'rni, Eruden, language of the demons, for Darkrider, and was one of the few remaining leaders of new Shadow Council after Warchief Thrall and the Emerald Circle's inquisition against them.

"But the Eye of Kilrogg also saw the newcomers! They brought the orc there! Maybe they know about our plot!" said one of the younger warlocks in this meeting.

"That's impossible Regdar and you know it, the Burning Legion is at our side and more centaurs join our cause everyday! Even if they discovered our plot our might will crush them easily."

Just as the younger warlock tried to make a retort the sound of hoofs is heard in the cave where the few survivors of the Burning Blade, Shadow Council and the Searing Blade made their home. A moment later a massive centaur stepped into the room, but it was not unexpected, for the centaurs camping outside were restless for some time. He said in very rough orcish: "My brothers are restless and we are thirsty for blood, when will your so called preparations be finished!"

"Do not worry centaur chief, your day has come, the defences on the Keep will be shut down, and your brothers can avenge your fallen brethrens!" the elder warlock said in an almost fanatical tone.

The centaur High-chief nodded eagerly and proceeded to exit the cave, but he turned at the end and said: "Will we have the Burning Lord's blessings?"

"Of course, of course, and we will send our finest warriors to aid you, and with your new enchanted burning blades you shall be invincible!"

The centaur's face changed into a twisted smile and left the cave.

---

"Strange, the horn seemed to be invincible to even the Spirit of Fire, and as you know Fire is the strongest of the five Sprits. Interesting, and he is alive, but only just, as though something stopping him from entering the Dark Beyond. I'm afraid the only thing we can do now is wait." announced the tired shaman Rash'kan to Durokar after spending several hours in the infirmary. "Is there anything else I need to know about him and the horn?"

"He disa-" just as Durokar began to explain to the ancient shaman another orc ran up the stair towards him. He looked quite breathless and is clearly one of the new recruits. "The commander… he wants you my lord… to meet… him up at the… command post."

"Did he say what he wants me for?" replied Durokar.

"No... but apparently he… said… something about… an eye." replied the tired recruit.

"I must go then. Rash'kan, keep an eye on Rotax." said Durokar as he left with the panting recruit behind him.

Although he had only been here once before, nearly 10 years ago, Durokar still navigated the passageways and tunnels with ease. As he passed the last row of centaur manes before the command post, the commander, Gudhagh Akinos, a former member of the elite Blademasters, rushed towards Durokar. With the same urgency as the messenger he spoke: "Durokar, we've been spied upon! And not just any spy, an Eye of Kilrogg!" as he spoke he held up a staring eye with strange green smoke behind it.

"An Eye of Kilrogg? That's only used by warlocks! They must have been using the Eye for some time just to penetrate the Spirit defences of this outpost! When was it discovered?" Durokar immediately replied, training by some of the finest shamans and warriors of the Horde had made him a more than capable commander.

"One of our sentry up on the wall spot it, just after you arrived. The Eye was just in front of the gate, I suspect the controlling warlock was disrupted or something, otherwise the Eye would not be in such a vulnerable state." said the veteran commander.

"Has there been any warlock activity in recent days?"

"Our outriders haven't discovered any warlocks in the vicinity, although some tracks indicate a large gathering of centaurs, that's the only unusual event we have encountered."

"Keep me informed on any new developments, Gudhagh. I shall be in my quarters."

---

As Durokar and Gudhagh discussed the threat of warlocks, the High-chief of centaurs were addressing his army of savages and brutes in a small hill merely 10 miles from Centaurmane Keep. He spoke with passion, he spoke with courage, and most importantly, he spoke of blood and revenge.

"We are the children of gods! We are the true kings of the plains! We shall have our revenge on the Greenskins and the Minotaurs!" he spoke in the savage language of the centaurs.

All the centaurs roared at the promise of revenge, and bowed down towards their High-chief. Although the individual centaur clans were never at peace, this centaur has united them all, whether through strength or blackmail.

"The Burning Lord has giving us his blessing! As soon as the Master sounds the Great Horn, we shall ride to war! With our burning blades, we shall be invincible! Our wrath shall sweep the plains clean of invaders! Soon we will be the master of the plains!" shouted the High-chief. As he shouted those mighty words, the centaurs around him waved their new war-blades in the air and shouted curses to the Greenskins. The Day of Centaurs has come.

* * *

Some of you might notice that this has no connection to the interlude, you are right it is not and you will not see any connection for the next 4 chapter or so, but it is linked! 


	6. B1: Chapter 5

New chapter! Next chapter will feature the Draeneis!

* * *

Chapter 5: Day of the Centaur

Centaurmane Keep, The Barrens, Year 35

As the inhabitants of Centaurmane Keep slept, a silent figure walked up the stairs and onto the battlement. His name was Rotax, and on his neck hangs a small horn, crafted by the Blood Elves and enchanted by their best mages. He had been released by the Blood Elves on one condition; blow the hand-crafted horn at dawn when he was rescued by scouts from Centaurmane Keep. He doesn't know the use of the horn, nor the importance of Centaurmane Keep; his only desire was to be freed from the strange shadowy figures that followed him everywhere in his mind, filling him with nightmares during his enchanted sleep forced upon him by the Elves. He looked at the black sky and saw a burning elvish face, he looked away from it, it was merely his mind he thought, blow the horn and everything will be fine… He raised the horn to his lips, and with one almighty blow from the orc the horn bursts into life, spreading its sound across the plains, and taking Rotax's life with it.

At the same moment, the Spirit-enforced gate to Centaurmane Keep shattered and broke into dust.

---

There was confusion, as orcs ran across the keep haphazardly and knocking others over. As soon as all the orcs had been woken by the horn less then 10 minutes ago, they knew something was wrong, very wrong.

When Durokar discovered the body of Rotax and the shattered gate, he knew something big was happening, no-one without a sizable army would dare to encroach upon any Horde holdings, even if it was a small keep. Even worse, he could feel that this and the Blood Elves are connected somehow. But before he could relate this to anyone at all, another horn sounded. It sounded eerily familiar to the horn they heard 10 minutes ago, but this time it was coming from far away.

"You know what this means don't you Durokar?" said Garlon the old orc from behind Durokar.

"Yes, the centaurs are coming." replied Durokar.

Just then Gudhagh Akinos, the commander of the keep said, "What is your wish my lord?", although he was the commander, Durokar has much more experience than him despite his young age.

"Send messengers to Spiritwind and Wolfsong, we need those reinforcements. And barricade this gate, not with rocks or wagons, use spikes and spears that would slow them down." soon he was yelling orders everywhere and soon there was order again amongst the orcs.

After roughly half and hour, they could finally hear the sound of the centaurs' hooves, although they still could not see them, it sounded like an inevitable wave to the orcs, but to the veteran commander Akinos, who was standing behind the gate with a group of elite orcs and Durokar, it told much more than that. He bent down with his head on the ground and closed his eye in concentration. "Roughly 500 centaurs I would think, and some sort of humanoids is amongst them, larger than Quillboars but smaller than ogres… Who could they be?" said the commander in a puzzled tone.

"Whoever they are here they come!" shouted Durokar, as centaurs, hundreds of them emerged over the ridge and swarmed towards the keep. On the battlement some orc officers had the good sense of yelling fire, many centaurs fell, but not nearly enough to break their attack.

By now the first centaurs has reached the gate, but slowed down by the spikes placed around the gate most of them were cut down by orcs easily. Durokar thought they might have a chance of winning when he heard a whooshing sound of his head, he turned back and just in time to see an orc incinerated by flame. Another whooshing sound, another orc screamed as his very skin burnt off. As Durokar implanted his battle-axe into the torso of another centaur, he shouted the orcs above to shoot at whoever that is doing this. He looked on as the arrows flew towards the back of the centaur horde, but to his horror, the arrows stopped midway and turned back! Transfixed by this sight he barely had time to dodge a spear aimed for his heart, merely a second later, he heard screams from above as the arrows shot the very archers who fired them. _Sorcery, _Durokar pondered as he continued fighting the endless horde,_ not centaur magic either, something advanced, like… _at that moment he felt that air around the victims was heavier than before, and finally realised that it was demon magic.

And demon magic means warlocks, and no warlocks could wield demon magic better than the Cult of the Burning Blade. Then the terrible answer dawned to Durokar, the centaurs and warlocks are working together, neither of them could topple the Horde alone, the warlocks with too few members and centaurs too warlike for their own good, but together they could lay destruction to any who stand before them. _Where are the reinforcements!_ Durokar thought angrily now that the threat was not only to this keep, but to Durotar and Mulgore as well.

---

Upon the ridge, the centaur chief smiled. The orcs fought bravely, yes, but it would hopeless, he had already sent other groups of centaurs to attack other Horde holdings in the Barrens, no-one would come to rescue this bunch of pitiful greenskins.

Behind him Ch'rni the warlock also smiled, his master's plan was near completion, so close… and that is why they must not fail now, for killing the heir to the title of Warchief was crucial to the plan. He muttered his chosen code-word, and all the Burning Blade Cultists in the vicinity felt it in their bones, it was time.

---

It was going badly for the orcs, very badly. The wall had been taken, and what remains of the guards gathered inside the living quarters. Their only salvation so far was that the centaurs could not climb the stairs and could be picked off one by on yet they knew eventually they would break through. Suddenly the centaurs stopped on the stairs, just out of sight. Then a whooshing sound appeared, the orcs fell back, step by step as they thought the warlocks are near. But it was even worse, an orc screamed as a dagger was inserted into his back, another made a sputtering sound as his throat was cut. Durokar looked around, it was not orc warlocks or centaurs attacking them, they were rogues, lowest of the low. On their green faces there were tattoos of a burning sword, and in their eyes burned an unholy flame that Durokar had seen in Blood Elves merely half a day before. While the orcs were concentrating on the assassins who had crept up on them unseen using demonic spells, the centaurs attacked, although their hooves were not used to stairs, their bloodrage more than enough fuelled their speed. At that moment, Durokar know they were doomed, unless he could ask the Elemental Sprits to completely get rid of all the centaurs around the keep, it was a long shot, as he knew no Spirit would grant him such a boon, yet he beseeched still. _Spirits of Earth, Fire, Water, Air and the Wilds, heed my call. May the creatures of the Wilds aid us, may the flame burn the centaurs, may the water drown the foul creatures, may the wind sweep them away, and may the earth tremble and swallow the centaurs whole. _Durokar waited, _of course the Spirits won't grant me such boon,_ he thought,_ it was too big, it would destroy the natural order of life_…

Wolves suddenly howled, desert cats roared, plainstriders screeched. The wind picked up a notch, the water in the well inside the keep rose, the campfires burned with the intensity of a volcano, and the earth rumbled and made many centaurs fall. Around the keep the wild creatures charged at the centaurs, the fires spewed blazing hot ashes and burnt the centaurs around them, the water rose out of the well and threw the centaurs against the wall, the wind picked many centaurs and threw them far away. But the worst damage was caused by Earth, as though the Spirit thought that the centaurs were abominations, massive holes opened up and sent the centaurs to an earthly grave.

Yet during all the chaos, the orcs were not harmed. They looked at the countless corpses of centaurs, and the ruined keep, and they knew this was not the only place the Burning Legion, through their agents like the Burning Blade and the Blood Elves, would strke.


	7. B1: Interlude

A rather short interlude, but R&R plz!

* * *

Interlude: Varimathras' Farewell

Royal Quarters, The Undercity, Year 35

In the very depth of the Undercity, miles away from Kalimdor, stood a long figure, she was pale yet tall, with a long bow slung across her back. Her name was Sylvanas Windrunner, the Dark Lady, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken.

Someone knocked on the door to the room in which Sylvanas stood, brooding over the siege of the Undercity by the Scourge. She said in a cold dark tone: "Enter."

A demonic figure entered, he has large wings and a set of curved horns on his head. He was Varimathras, Majordomo to the Banshee Queen; some even considered that he was the real leader of the Forsaken, which was of course false, until now.

"Varimathras, shouldn't you be patrolling the outer defences? The Scourge could attack any moment." said Sylvanas in the sane dark tone as before.

"The Scourge would attack, and we will lose." muttered the sinister Dreadlord.

"How can you say that Varimathras? We are the Forsaken, we are the free ones, we have achieved no Undead has ever achieved! We cannot be defeated!" exclaimed the Dark Lady, annoyed by Varimathras' pessimism.

"You mean you have achieved all those, my Lady. But do you really think we can hold the Scourge back? Do you really think we can survive one more attack? Your tactics are failing, and a new one would need to be found, and I have just the one."

"What Varimathras? Invite the demons from the Twisting Nether and ask them to destroy the Scourge but not us? Or are you thinking about joining force with the Scarlet Crusade! Or better yet, ask the Alliance to help us!" Sylvanas snarled in rage, fits of rage has plagued her for the last few months.

"Why Milady you got it right, we _will _summon the demons from the Twisting Nether. Already my servants are preparing to open new portals, soon we will lift the siege and free the Plaguelands of the Scourge!" Varimathras said with a tone that suggested he was mad.

"You… you are mad Varimathras, I will not allow it! Haven't you remembered…" but her words were cut off by Varimathras.

"Oh, I think you will allow it, Milady." A dark grin appeared on Varimathras' face, and with one swipe of his adamantium-tipped claws, the reign of the Banshee Queen was ended.


	8. B1: Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Meeting at the Vale

Ammen Vale, Azuremyst Isle, Year 36

Five month after the disastrous centaur attacks on Horde holdings throughout the Barrens, the various leaders of the different races populating Kalimdor finally agreed to meet. However due to the fact the night elves still distrusts orcs for blaming them for something they did not do, the meeting was held at Ammen Vale, instead of the original meeting place at Ashenvale where the leaders have met for years. Azuremyst Isle was once the home of the Draenei who crashed onto Azeroth, but now it was merely a ghost island where only few of the Draenei and other Alliance races live.

The meeting was to be held at Ammen Vale, a secluded valley at the north of the island. Along the small path that runs across the length of the valley was a procession of orcs which consists of the Warchief Thrall, his son Durokar and their personal guards.

The orcs walked towards the meeting places slowly and cautiously, despite that the night elves has officially accepted their apologies, they still felt uneasy around them. Up ahead they could see a large white axe rising above the trees, the orcs bowed their heads in respect, even the Thrall, for they knew it was the statue of Highlord Saurufang, who died protecting Thrall's mate against Alliance forces. As they got closer, more statues of heroes who fought in the wars between the Alliance and the Horde appeared: there was Gazlowe, the goblin who built Thrallmar Hold in Outland and who blown up the fortress with himself rather than let the demons take it; Shandris Feathermoon, the night elf general who is said to have slain hundreds of Worgen in Felwood before being killed; Wizzel Carbinetook, the gnome who dealt the killing blow to Ragnaros the Firelord himself; Lindon Lightreaver, the human who reforged the legendary sword Ashbringer and who brought destruction to thousands of undead. In fact the entire central part of the valley was filled with statues, not unlike the Valley of Heroes in Stormwind.

Yet this was not the orcs' destination, the orcs walked on, passing through the statues whilst each muttered a silent tribute. They followed the path for another 5 minutes or so, until they reached the other end of the valley from which they started, on it stood a great round table, not unlike the one in Orgrimmar, except this table was made of marble and emits a faint light.

"Eloquent as always I see." Thrall said in a friendly tone to a middle-aged woman across the table. "It's nice to see you Jaina!"

"It's nice to see you too Thrall, and you too Durokar." replied Jaina Proudmoore, Ruler of Theramore. Despite the fact that she was only 42 years old, she already has grey hairs and wrinkles began to show on her face, both of them caused by the stress of running a city-state and the continual use of magic.

"Do you have any idea when Tyrande or Nobundo will arrive?" Thrall asked whilst scanning the valley for the leaders of the night elves and Draenei to arrive.

Before Jaina could reply, Thrall saw a group of people coming out of a strangely shaped building that Thrall knew as Exodar, a mysterious structure that the Draenei used to reach Azeroth, on the far side of the valley,

Since an orc's vision are at least 10 times better than human's, Jaina did not notice the procession and said: "I sent Duree and Levin to see what's going on, but they are not back yet."

Thrall nodded in understanding and bemusement at the sorceress' words. Duree was Jaina's old and rather annoying house-keeper, according to Jaina the only reason she keeps her was because Duree can find things that she can't in her office. Levin on the other hand was Jaina's adopted son, whose real parents were killed by demons. Jaina then took Levin into her own household and raised him to be her successor and a mage.

Just then Jaina noticed where Thrall was looking, "Where are you looking at Thrall?"

"Tyrande and Nobundo, by the looks of it, and some others as well."

---

"Surely all these things that happened in the past 5 months are all connected! The centaur attacks on the Barrens, the Satyrs' attack on Auberdine, the reappearance of the Burning Blade and the attack on goblin caravans by Quillboars. The real question is what or who was causing them!" said Levin, the young mage in a tireless voice.

Across the table, Durokar stood up and after a moment of contemplation said: "There's something else, the Blood Elves are back." A collective gasp was produced by the various leaders.

"Tell us more, young orc." Nobundo, the wise Draenei shaman said. Ever since most of his race left this world to join the Naaru as a part of the Army of the Light, he had been the leader of the remaining Draeneis, most of them shamans who followed his teachings or hunters, who yearned for the wilds.

And so Durokar explained to the gathered leaders what he had seen on the island, as well as what the nagas had told him.

"Surely not! Even the Burning Legion would not set up a portal in Northrend, the Scourge would wipe them out before they would have a foothold!" said Durkon, leader of the few dwarves remaining in Kalimdor. Years of living in Kalimdor has removed his normal dwarven accent and made him sound like a human.

"I trust the word of Durokar, but I don't trust the word of naga. However if this was true we must take actions," said Jaina, calm as always.

"Yes we must, but how are we to interrupt the legion's plan if our homelands are under attack themselves? They all make sense now; the blood elves must be rallying all those creatures together, and possibly raising portals in their lairs!" said Tyranda, the lone leader of the Night Elves, after Malfurion Stormrage was trapped in the Emerald Dream and Fanderal Staghelm was killed when he staged the coup, possibly under the influence of the Old Gods.

"Still the legion needs to be taken care of, we cannot allow them to establish a base in Northrend, even if the Scourge might have taken care of them already, we still need to send a force there, to make sure." said Thrall.

"Very well, let us all go back and fortify our cities, and then send a small regiment to Ratchet, we will journey from there to Northrend. We should all have enough soldiers left to defend us still. And you Durokar, I think your actions in the Barrens should make you the perfect commander for the army." said Jaina, concluding the talk.

---

A shadow moved slightly in the trees surrounding the table. As the leaders left the table to journey back to their lands, the tiny figure laughed. "Trying to fight us, eh? The Master won't like that! hehehehe…" and then a small, burning hole appeared in the air, and the figure disappeared through it.


	9. B1: Epilogue

Epilogue

Somewhere near Northrend, The Great Sea, Year 36

Durokar stared back at his fleet, onboard the orc flagship, "Iron Will". The fleet was made out of the elegant elven frigates, dwarven made battleships, as well as the mighty steel juggernauts of the orcs. _800 soldiers_,he thought, _would that be enough?_

They had set sail from Ratchet as planned; going with him to Northrend includes Levin and Jaina, as well as Tyranda Whisperwind. Every race in Kalimdor could only send this much soldiers, due to the fact that as they were getting ready, more attacks were committed by demon-worshippers and their allies.

As he contemplated about the battle that would surely come, a sudden cry came from his left. "Look at the sky!" a marine orc shouted.

Durokar raised his head and gasped, the sky turned _red_!

The orcs around him started to panic, screaming their head off. Durokar grimaced, it was understandable, hardly anyone here had any experience with demons, much less their foul magic. In fact, Durokar himself has only seen the fearsome demons in books and scrolls.

Suddenly, a voice, far stronger than anything Durokar has ever heard before appeared, and with it, came a burning figure, floating just above the sea. At first he thought it was Archimonde, the demon lord who invaded Azeroth before but failed, until he saw that unlike Archimonde, this new demon's skin was blood red.

Memories from Durokar's childhood flooded back, he could remember his tutor telling him: _This is the other lord of the Burning Legion, Durokar, his name was Kil'jaeden, the Deceiver…_

_Kil'jaeden… _Durokar shivered with fear.

The red figure suddenly grew ten times larger and extended a massive hand that covered the entire fleet, the very air that the sailors breathe suddenly became very heavy.

"Foolish mortals, none may stop the Burning Legion's plan!" shouted Kil'jaeden in a foul voice, and as he said it, the hand enclosed upon the fleet…

By the time the hand opened again, the fleet was nowhere to be seen.

"This will teach the mortals…" muttered Kil'jaeden before disappearing again in a storm of fire.


	10. Book 2: Prologue

Prologue

Somewhere near the coast, the Arathi Highland, Year 36

A small troupe of dwarves and a gnome moved slowly across the blackened soil of the Highland. This used to be a safe haven from the Plague of Undeath, but in the years after the failed attack on Northrend by the soldiers of Stormwind, this area, as well as everything north of it, had been conquered by the Scourge.

The leading dwarf was a veteran scout and had fought in the Third War, his name was Thoradin Stoutface, descended from a family of fierce fighters, he was the first in his family to become a scout, instead of the traditional riflemen. Another unusual thing about him is that he is named after an ancient human king, due to his father's blood debt to a human.

And at this right moment he was getting very annoyed at the gnome engineer they brought with them. "Wha' I'm sayin' right now is that we need the teleport thin' fixed right now if yer wan' to live to tom'rrow!" shouted Thoradin in the top of his voice.

"Well your demands are totally inappropriate and highly unachievable. If you actually took a look at the teleporter you will see that all the circuitry are all blown due to your disaster attack on the undead yesterday!" said the gnome in a rather annoying voice, who was called Fizzle Mekatank.

"I wouldn' call me attack a disaster, we too' down more than 40 of those undead bastards and a necromancer, too! And stop talkin' as if all yer inventions work, you living-detector is totally useless! Don' yer realise we are the only livin' things here!" said the dwarf, straining to keep his voice down after his second-in-command signalled to him about something moving near the coast.

"For your information my living-detector works perfectly, if I may…" the gnome bent down and opened his bag, taking out a small mechanical object, he continued "Look, if I open my device here, you will see that the circuits are working per… By the Tinker!"

"Wha' now…"

"Look at the yellow dot! And look! There's more!" the gnome shouted excitedly.

"And wha' does the yellow dots mean?"

"It's a living-detector, Thoradin you fool, so the yellow dots must be humanoids that are alive! We found people! There are people other than us here!"

* * *

Some of you might say that necromancers would show up on the "living-detector" but since it was so long since the Third War most of the necromancers were either undead or sacrificed their old body for a more powerful one (liches) 


	11. B2: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Change of Fate

Somewhere near the coast, the Arathi Highlands, Year 36

Thoradin's heart raced, _people? Alive?_ _Surely they would have all dead or fled by now!_ Nevertheless, he was determined to investigate.

"Alright, Torin, up front, keep yer eyes on the bushes. Lain an' Carn, cover our backs and don' let those undead sneak up on us again!" Thoradin shouted a string of orders and in minutes they were off, riding on the Tech-Union manufactured Mechanostriders again.

Excitement rang through his head, _what would they be like? If they found them, they would have to bring them back to the Wall, where they would be considerably safer than here. Would they agree? Or for that matter the government? The government at Stormwind has recently been gradually getting stricter with allowing scout missions beyond the Wall at the northern edge of the Wetlands. Still, that was 3 months ago; maybe the government changed their mind now… _

After riding for more 15 minutes Thoradin was getting frustrated again, and he decided to take it out on Fizzle the gnome again. "Where are those people? We've been walkin' for 15 minutes! If yer machine is wrong Fizzle…"

"Wait! My machine is picking up a stronger signal, just about… there!" The gnome suddenly pointed to the coast.

"Com'on! There's nothing there except the flippin' sea!" as he said this however, the broken wreck of a ship slowly drifted past across his vision, it looks burnt as black marks was visible.

Whatever anger and frustration he had before had all but disappeared, his sense of duty to the Alliance overcame his other emotions "Com'on everyone, they migh' need help!" with that, he disappeared towards the beach.

---

Durokar opened his eyes to pandemonium.

He was on a beach, somewhere. It was not the barren desert coasts of Durotar, nor is it the lush forest-covered coast of Ashenvale, and it was definitely no the coast of Northrend.

And clearly all the other sailors has realised this fact as well. They ran around the beach like new-born humans, whilst a few battle-hardened veterans and the night elves struggle to get them under control.

"Glad to see you've finally woken up." a voice said from behind Durokar.

Durokar wearily stood up and turned around. "So what's the situation? And thanks for getting me to this beach."

"Well, our fleet get teleported by Kil'jaeden to this place and in the process our fleet got mashed. That's the gist of it anyway. And how do you know it wasn't one of your men who rescued you?" said the tall handsome young man, Levin, heir to Lordship of Theramore. He is about the same age as Durokar and is as much as mage as Durokar is a warrior.

"Given the condition of my men…" Durokar turned around and looked at the orcs before continuing, "I doubt they would do anything but save their own lives. We should really get command of the situation before all hell breaks lose."

"Maybe we should, although Mother and Priestess Whisperwind seem to have taken care of the situation already," Levin said, looking at the much quieter assembly of troops on the beach.

After herding the few soldiers that have fled into the thin forest back, the small army assembled on the beach. They have lost most of their mounts with the ships but some siege equipment and most of their provisions were salvaged.

When the soldiers had been ordered into setting up a temporary camp the leaders met in a small clearing in the forest.

"The forest here... seems to be corrupted…" muttered Tyranda Whisperwind quietly, after touching a tree gently.

Jaina and Levin nodded slowly, while Durokar made a small grunt of assent. "And the ground beyond the forest, it's _black_!" continued Levin.

There's a moment of silence before Jaina said: "I think we all know where we are now, this place must be somewhere in Lordaeron."

Although Durokar has expected this it still came as a shock to him. They must have been the first people from Kalimdor to have reached the Eastern Kingdoms. _Or what's left of the continent anyway…_

Levin was also shocked, despite the fact that he had learned everything there's to know about the Eastern Kingdoms in the Theramore Library he always believed that it will never be seen by the people of Kalimdor again.

It would be another minute later before Durokar broke their silence. "I'll take some of my scouts and see what's beyond those hills." said Durokar.

"Becareful, there may be undead here." said Jaina cautiously.

Durokar nodded silently before going back to the makeshift camp.

Durokar hand-picked 3 trolls to go with him, and together they walked stealthily upward towards the hills. When they were finally on top of them they saw that except some thin trees, there were nearly no cover across the wide open plains beyond the hills. _This would be a good place to set up camp…_thought Durokar silently.

As the small scout party scanned the horizon, a faint rustle came from another patch of trees further up ahead. The head troll muttered something in Troll before moving forward towards the trees.

The 2 other trolls notched arrows on to their bows and aimed at the trees, ready to cover their leader if any threat would emerge from the trees.

Still trying to discern what's going on, Durokar squinted desperately at the trees. After what seemed to be an eternity he could see a shadow of something in the trees. Something taller than a night elf, something like… a dwarf on a mechanical Plainstrider?

---

_Stupid machine! _Thought Thoradin, _Why can' these stupid Mecha'striders go faster!_ Not for the first time he pushed the speeding gear towards maximum, but the fail-safe that _stupid _engineers built inside the _stupid _machine stopped the gear before Thoradin could pushed to the end.

Thoradin was so concentrated on his hatred against the Tech-Union that he did not notice he ran into a small patch of trees. He did notice it however when a branch hit him on the head.

Thoradin rubbed his head whilst cursing his own carelessness. He looked back and could see no-one from his scout party. _Damn it, _he thought. _The' are slow!_

He turned up his engine again, except that this time he turned the Mechanostrider on recon mode, the slowest mode possible. _If they are gonna drop in to the Nether, _said his old instructor, _you might as well recon it before you get there!_

He emerged from the trees slowly, watching his surroundings… and then he saw the troll.

* * *

Bonus Profile: The Tech-Union

Formed when the goblin homeland, Undermine, was destroyed during a demon attack. The only race that was willing to help the goblins by their own free will was the gnomes, who despite being rival to goblins, were eager to help them for their technology. Only after several meetings and various threats did the Alliance and the Horde fully commit to the rescuing the surving goblins from their doomed homeland. Disgusted at the slowness in which the Alliance helped the goblins, the gnomes finally realised that whilst the Alliance had helped them, their wars had never brought any improvements to the gnomes or helped the gnomes to take back their capital city, Gnomeregan. When the gnomes left the Alliance, they joined with the goblins, the only race that would understand their plight and their thirst for technology. Together they retook Gnomeregan and formed the Tech-Union.


	12. B2: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Meetings

Thoradin and the troll stood still, facing each other.

Although there are still former Horde aligned trolls living in the Eastern Kingdoms, all of them lived in former Horde outposts and camps throughout the continent, and Thoradin had never heard of any trolls, whether Jungle or Forest breed, still living in the Great Plaguelands.

The troll was also looking perplexed, but clearly its mind reacted faster than Thoradin's. He emitted a piercing cry and ducked down. Moments later 2 arrows punched into the circuit of the Mechanostrider.

Thoradin fell down and cried out. The troll moved towards him, holding a brutal looking axe. The troll held the axe right in front of Thoradin's face whilst speaking in an alien tongue.

Thoradin silently cursed. _Damn, why did I choose to stud' Gnomish! Thos' gnomes could spea' Common anyway…_

A sudden bang appeared from behind them and a small projectile covered in steam went past Thoradin and missed the Troll by only a few inches. From the smoke trails Thoradin could see the projectile was from a Steam Pistol. The shooter was also surprisingly good at using it because the Steam Pistol was notoriously inaccurate; the steam would often throw the projectile back the wrong direction, or worse.

The only person Thoradin knew that could accurately fire a Steam Pistol is Cain, his second-in-command. And not a moment later, Cain emerged from the trees, still holding his Pistol as well as a massive battle-axe on his other hand. The troll snarled in rage and waved his axe, pitifully small against Cain's worn battle-axe. Cain blocked it easily and swung his axe in a counterattack.

At the same moment, more dwarves and a gnome emerged from the trees, all carrying weapons.

"Stop!" said a voice in Dwarven. They all stopped, whether it's because of the authority in the speaker's voice, or simply because they are surprised.

Thoradin looked back. None of the dwarves were speaking and they all looked stunned. He looked in front of him, and a figure was running towards them. It was huge, like the orcs he had seen in their outposts… or maybe it was an orc?

An orc that speaks dwarven?

---

Durokar opened his mouth in shock as he saw dwarves, there must be 10 of them, emerged from the trees. All of them carrying the machineries that dwarves carry inside of bow and arrows, something the humans called "guns".

The 2 trolls beside him were also surprised, their hands were on their bows but they have no intention of shooting the dwarves, yet. The trolls could see that their advantage had slipped to the dwarves.

"Get back to the camp, get couple dwarves, and Lady Jaina, she would recognise if they were his troops or not." Durokar ordered silently to one of the trolls.

The troll nodded and crept off down the hill towards the beach.

Durokar motioned the other troll to stand down and stood up; hoping that the few Dwarven words he learned would be enough to convince the dwarves, whether allies or dwellers of this land, that they meant no harm.

He could see the dwarves closing in on the head-troll, and any moment they could kill him with their weapons. Durokar gathered up his courage and shouted in the top of his voice: "Rak Volm!" He remembered dimly that it meant stop, or halt, hopefully this would distract the dwarves long enough until Jaina would alive. She would definitely be able to speak Dwarven, hopefully.

The dwarves looked up, puzzled. The dwarf at the front, the dwarf that first emerged from the trees, looked at him and said: "Esaus tharana teno Orc dwonos?"

"Dasas dwonos khan?" said a woman's voice in reply to the dwarf. Durokar looked behind him and saw Jaina standing there.

"Thasas Mis Jaina! Cain, haksa junge Marni!" the head dwarf motioned to another dwarf beside him, and the other dwarf hefted his long battle-axe from the troll's neck.

Durokar sighed in relief, and looked behind him again. More soldiers are arriving from the camp now; Jaina had got here faster because of her teleporting spell.

After communicating in Dwarven or some other Alliance language for 10 minutes or so, the dwarves moved forward carefully and put their weapons onto their backs. Jaina turned back to Durokar and smiled at him. "We just made first contact." said Jaina. "They are some sort of scout group from Stormwind to skirmish minor Scourge forces in this area. This confirms it, we are in the Easter Kingdoms."

The soldiers around them cheered, especially the troops in the Theramore Elite Guards. All of them are veterans of the Third War and hardly any of them had seen to their old homeland since.

The dwarves walked towards them and spoke, this time in Common. "Ar' ya sure we can trus' this orcs… Lady Jaina?"

"Of course you can Thoradin, they are my allies. Now, to more urgent matters. You said we are in the Arathi Highland, but shouldn't this place… be more green?"

"This is the Arath' Highland alrigh', but ever since th' Scourge attacked tis place, it's been like this. Tis place is not safe anymore, yer should move your army to the wall, yer'll be safe there."

"Wall? Which wall?" asked Durokar, he had never heard of any wall around the Highlands.

The dwarf called Thoradin glanced up at Durokar before opening his mouth, "The wall ter Alliance built to keep ter Scourge out." the dwarf looked at Durokar once more before speaking to Jaina again. "We got a teleporter thin'. But I think it's broken, and even if it's not broke', I doubt we could teleport the whole army." He looked at the ever growing number of soldiers gathering behind them.

"We won't need a teleporter. Stormwind might not like an army of orcs, elves and trolls suddenly appear right in front of them. I think we need to send an emissary first. Levin should be more than capable for that, Levin?" Jaina gestured behind him.

Levin, who had just teleported from the camp a moment before, was taken aback. "Of course, Mother…"

Thoradin widened his eye for a bit as Levin called Jaina mother, but decided this was not the time.

"Thoradin, Levin should be able to teleport you and your party to the wall, its not far is it?" Thoradin nodded, whilst silently musing whether Lady Proudmoore is always like this, taking control of a situation no matter what. "After that, you should travel to Stormwind. If the nobles… "Jaina said the word in distaste; after all it was them who expelled Jaina when she went to Stormwind to discuss a peace treaty between the Horde and the Alliance. "agree, then we would move our forces towards the south."

Thoradin thought over the plan for a while and went back towards his fellow dwarves to retrieve their Mechanostriders. On the way he met many other dwarves from Kalimdor, pleased as though to see his kinsfolk, he felt some thought of distance between them.

Meanwhile Jaina and Levin were having a telepathic conversation.

"_When you reach Stormwind, becareful. The nobles would most likely give their money to Deathwing than help us. If so, try to seek help from the King, or Prince Anduin, they are wise and would be a valuable help." _said Jaina telepathically.

"_Yes Mother, but what about the Scourge? They could attack this camp any moment! Are you sure you will be safe here?" _replied Levin

"_Of course Levin, and we will move camp as soon we receive any sign. Tyranda and Durokar are all very capable commanders. Now, the dwarves are ready, I think you should go now."_

"_Yes Mother."_


	13. B2: Chapter 3

Really sorry for the really long hiatus! I was very busy. I will still continue this story, but some elements of the story will not fit the lore that Blizzard had released!

Chapter 3: The Wall of Arathor

Levin quietly muttered an arcane word of power, symbols full of magic surrounded and swirled around him and the dwarves. Another voice started chanting with him, it was Jaina Proudmoore, his Mother, with the combined magic the symbols stabilised and stopped moving. There was a flash of light and a moment later they were gone from the sight of the watching soldiers of the expedition.

Levin staggered back as the scene before him changed from a black plain to a massive white wall.

Some of the dwarves cheered and waved their guns about but Thoradin hushed them down again. He moved towards Levin and said: "Yer magic's not half bad. The Alliance could use someone like yer." Levin gave the dwarf a faint smile, although his affinity to the magical art was widely praised in Theramore, he rarely had time to appreciate them.

"Where is the gate?" Levin asked Thoradin.

"I thin' that's the Lion's Tower, and so… the gate should be thar' way!" Thoradin pointed to the right.

At the same time, the gnome engineer moved toward them and said: "Shouldn't we contact the people on the wall first? We still got some signal flare left." The gnome said as he held out an odd looking gun.

"Not a bad thought actually, Fizzle, that's yer first contribution on this mission." He took the gun and aimed upward, he pulled the trigger and a small projectile was shot towards the sky. When the projectile reached the height of the wall it exploded in a ball of flame.

"Giv' me yer binocula' Fizzle." He put the large gnomish binocular onto his eyes to scan the wall.

Someone came out of the tower and looked around, he took out a similar device to the one Thoradin is using, and scanned the stretch of the land beyond the wall. He stopped moving when he sighted the dwarves. At first Thoradin the lone guardsman was surprised, but when he saw the guard ran off the wall like he was chased, he knew something was wrong.

Thoradin signalled all the dwarves to stay down whilst he and Levin stood as lookouts.

"What did you see?" asked Levin.

"A footman got scared of us." Thoradin said simply.

"He could be surprised by us coming out of the Plaguelands; maybe he thinks we are undead?"

"No chance, I know all the guards from here to Tower of Forgin'. All the soldie' are veterans, they wouldn' freak out like him. If they are changin' the guards on the Wall, then somethin' big is happenin'."

As they were talking quietly, a small secondary gate of the wall at the foot of the Lion's Tower opened, a small group of horsemen rode out. Instead of the heavy armour that Levin would have expected in a frontier garrison, they were dressed in small simple garments, the only protection being a small, frail-looking leather chest piece.

Thoradin looked at the horsemen suspiciously until he saw the horseman at lead let down his hood. Thoradin smiled and gave the all-clear signal.

"Tha's Commande Horen, he commans' this stretch of th' wall. Strange that he isn't wearin' the commande's cloak…"

The horsemen reached them, and before Thoradin could speak a word of greeting, the leading horseman hushed them and said quietly. "We are watched. We can't speak here, when you get in to the wall, see me in my quarters. Don't answer any of the questions they ask you."

The small party were puzzled but followed Horen's command. The horsemen then led the small party into the wall. Once they were inside the gate they were met by a thin tall man that looked he hadn't seen the sunlight for years.

The man spoke with a controlled, but clearly suspicious tone. "Captain Horen, you may lead your men to their quarters whilst the… dwarves… debrief me on their mission." Thoradin looked suspiciously at the man, although he has no medals or stars on his lapel, the man were clearly someone of importance, but who? He would have known about anyone important in the military, it could be possible that the man got promoted in the three months that Thoradin was absent, but that would be highly doubtable.

Another worrying fact was that the man called Horen a captain, Thoradin had always thought Horen as a trust-worthy man and a capable commander, and this roused even more suspicion for the man from Thoradin.

When Captain Horen and his men left the room beside the small gate, the pale man turned his attention to the dwarves and one human. "Captain Thoradin Stoutface, leading a troupe of dwarves and one gnome into a reconnaissance mission into the Greater Plaguelands. Left the wall at with 15 standard scout issue Mechanostriders and 15 steam pistols as well as other miscellaneous equipments. Is that correct?"

Thoradin nodded cautiously, noting Horen's warning.

"Then tell me, why is there a human here?" the man said the sentence as though Levin was an object instead of a person.

Thoradin glanced at his fellow companions, he thought of retelling the events in the Plaguelands, but he trusts Horen, if he thinks the man can't be trusted, then he believes him.

"He's a mage, got messe' up in a telepor' spell. Accidentall' telepor' himse' to the Plaguelands, we foun' him." replied Thoradin gradually, making up the story as he went along. "He' can' speak by the way, he's mess' up." He added in an afterthought, if Levin was questioned he might say something not to their advantage, especially since he had seen Azeroth since he was born.

The man looked at them sternly, before saying "Very well, if your story checks out, then you will be rewarded for saving a human. In the mean time, go to your old quarters, and take him to captain Horen's quarters."

Thoradin and his men thought the man's words were strange, but they still have to obey a superior officer. They did a salute and headed to the living quarters.

Thoradin ordered his men to go back to their rooms, whilst, along with Cain, led Levin to Captain Horen's room. As soon as Horen opened the door, Thoradin said "Wha' was thar' about? Who is he? And why did he tal' to us as though we are demons or somethin'?"

Captain Horen gave them a bitter smile and replied, "That person is Kristoph Hallen, the Inquisitor for this section of the Great Wall."


	14. B2: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Winds of Change

"The wha'?" Thoradin nearly shouted.

"The Inquisitor for this section of the wall, they make a report on each person here, and determine whether we have any, er… anti-human tendencies." Replied Horen.

"But you are all human." Said Levin, making what he thought was a very obvious point.

"Well we are, but we may help or be friendly to 'non-humans'… and by 'non-humans' I mean dwarves, gnomes and elves. They are also clamping down on the orcs and trolls, in fact I don't think any of them are still living in their camps any more, all of them are in the prisons in Stormwind. At least some of the dwarves and gnomes are helped by isolated villages, no-one would dare help the orcs because it would mean a life sentence for them if they were found out." said Horen.

"Wai'… wai'… you mean all the non-humans in Azeroth are getting' punished for being what they are? What 'bout Ironforge? or the Tech-Union? Are they doin' anything?" Thoradin asked.

"Well they tried, but they would never be strong enough to take on Stormwind. They've already withdrawn all of their frontier scouts from the wall; you are the last group of scouts back I think." replied Horen. "Most of the veterans were pulled back to Stormwind because the Inquisitor thinks they were too friendly towards the scouts, so I got this rabble to man the wall here. But I still got some loyal men under my command, so we will sneak you out during the night. And as for you," Horen turned to Levin, "you look like a mage to me, so how did you meet with Thoradin and his scout party?"

Levin then told Horen all about the Kalimdor expedition and how they encountered the dwarves, by the end of his story; Horen was sitting still on his chair, stunned by what he heard.

"Yea, ther' story got me too, still cant' believe they are still alive after all thes' years…" Thoradin muttered.

"So, you are sent here by Kil'jadin himself?"

Levin nodded silently, reliving the moment the huge demon teleported the entire fleet to here.

"This is great news! We have to get to Stormwind, and tell the King, although not to him directly… probably best to speak to Prince Anduin first…" Horen's words gradually grew quieter.

"What's wrong with King Varian?" Asked Levin, who had learnt enough human history from the library in Theramore to know that the King was a wise ruler, and, other than a brief abduction, had ruled Stormwind well for decades.

"Well… the King is ill, or so they say, nobody can be sure of what's true or not these days. If the King was fine, these laws would have never been passed, Prince Anduin is trying to persuade him about how wrong the laws were, but apparently the King is adamant about the laws he had passed." said Horen.

Horen looked at the sky, which was gradually darkening, and said to Thoradin and Levin, "You better get some sleep now, we would be moving you guys out at…" He opened a drawer and pulled out a Gnome-made watch, "Illegal item, so I have to hide it… we will be moving you at midnight, so you should get some sleep, at least we would be moving you if I can get in contact with the Victor brothers that is…" As he started to fiddle with a magically enchanted bottle.

Thoradin bade goodbye, whilst Levin sat on a spare bed in Horen's quarters. He couldn't sleep and so instead asked Horen about how he will be moving them.

"Well, not many people are very happy about the laws, after all the dwarves and gnomes had been in the Alliance for a long time, a lot of people were eager to help them. The Victor brothers are one group of them; they operate a gryphon carrier service, which basically transport endangered people to safe houses across the country. This bottle is supposed to teleport the message I put in there to their base…" Horen kept tapping the bottle with his fingers, but the message inside it did not disappear.

"Here, let me help." offered Levin. He took the bottle, and in his mind he identified the wrong component in the complicated spell work. He quickly corrected it in his mind.

He tapped it with his finger, and the message disappeared. Horen was amazed at how Levin fixed the bottle, "That's amazing! The Victors say that it is really hard magic, only one of their High Elf friends could cast it."

Levin smiled briefly, but said "The bottle had been tampered with, someone damaged part of the spell, so that it won't work. Does any of your men know magic?"

"Are you suggesting one of my men did this? No, none of them know magic, I don't think anyone knows magic here apart from the battle mages, but they are stationed at a garrison miles away." said Horen.

"It could be accidentally of course, a slight spark could damage it, or maybe some heavy tool… but they won't damage the magic so accurately at one point…" Levin's muttering gradually trailed off, as he tried to think of how the magical bottle got damaged.

Midnight gradually got closer, and soon the other dwarves and the gnomes reached Horen's quarters. He quickly led them down the stairs, and into the courtyard. Levin asked if the guards would see them, Horen said that he had changed the roster when the dwarves arrived, so that only men loyal to him stood guard over the wall.

They waited in the court yard, until, at exactly midnight, they heard the beat of wings. From behind the forest nearby, ten gryphons appeared, five with riders and five without.

The majestic beasts touched down in the courtyard, and one by one the dwarves and the gnome climbed on to their backs, whilst Levin climbed behind who he had assumed was the leader. Levin was rather disturbed by the fact that none of them spoke as they mounted, and they were still silent as they flew towards their secret destination; a few of the dwarves tried to begin a conversation with the riders, but the riders did not respond.

After about two hours of flying, they reached wherever they are going to. It looked to Levin like a small hill, but as they got closer, he realised that it was an illusion, an extremely good illusion in fact. _The High Elf sorcerer the Victor brothers use must be very good, _mused Levin.

Levin jumped down the gryphon he was riding, seeing a small but orderly camp behind the hill illusion, and was met by a friendly looking man, who he assumes must be one of the Victor brothers, flanked by a High Elf, who was muttering a spell.

Levin wondered about what the spell could be, when suddenly one of the dwarves gasped in surprise; the five riders who led the gryphons suddenly _disappeared_.

All of the others were surprised apart from Victor, the High Elf and Levin. Levin was just about to ask the Elf about the spell, when all hell broke loose. Arrows were fired into their midst, whilst explosions were heard from the other side of the small camp. It was only now that Levin realised that the illusion protecting the camp was gone, and from the skies countless number of human soldiers and Inquisitors riding gryphons bearing down on the camp. Beyond the camp itself, a huge number of foot soldiers and knights also appeared, one of the leaders blew a horn, and all of them charged.


	15. B2: Chapter 5

R&R please:D

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Chapter 5: The Stockades

Levin tried to cast a teleporting spell that would bring everyone to safety, but he quickly stopped; because he only knows a few locations in the Eastern Kingdoms, such as Stormwind or other major cities, if he teleported to any of them, there would be commotion amongst the townspeople, as well as attracting the attention of the local garrison.

Instead he focused on a shield spell, protecting the group of people around them. It blocked many arrows, but a fireball blasted through, and knocked down the High Elven mage. Levin casted a simple healing spell on the elf, but the elf did not stir. As his attention was drawn to the elf, his shield spell began to falter, and soon more missiles and spells began to rain from above. At the same time the soldiers charged into the camp, knocking down four of the dwarves, and some of the mages amongst the charging group casted dozens of spell into the knot of people at the centre of the camp, Levin was hit on the chest by one of the spell and was knocked down. Vaguely he realised the spell was a sleeping spell of some sort, before blacking out.

---

Levin opened his eyes slowly, gradually adjusting to the darkness around him. A clear voice suddenly rang out from the darkness, "You think you can escape Inquisitor Kristoph unnoticed eh? His one of our best; he allowed you to escape in order to find the Victors' secret hideout. You are now charged with aiding the escape of non-humans, as well as secretly harbouring non-humans. Your sentence will be decided by the High Inquisitor tomorrow, for now; you will stay in this magic-proof cell until your trial." The voice then stopped.

Levin tried to cast a simple spell in his mind, but as soon as all the matrices of the spell formed in his mind, it disappeared. Levin then tried to stand up, but found it impossible. After trying for a while, he stopped; waiting for the time he would be taking to what would be definitely a fake trial, where he might be able to use his magic better.

He thought about the dwarves, and wondered if he could send a telepathic message to them; telepathy is not strictly a form of magic, as it did not require any form of incantation nor movements, merely knowledge of the rough location of the subject and whether that person would allow the telepathic message through. Telepathy is even easier if the subject is friendly to the caster, since the two minds would recognise each other amongst others. It was not taught by the human mages, his Mother had told him, but was a skill learnt from the Night Elves. So it seemed logical that the magical cell would not stop attempts of telepathy.

Since this appeared to be a prison of some sort, Levin assumed that the dwarves must be close by. He closed his eyes and allowed his thoughts wander out of his cell; the first mind he found was a jail guard, who was breathing very slowly, and Levin assumed that he was sleeping. He let his mind wander further, focusing on Thoradin's face. Gradually, his mind was guided closer towards Thoradin's, even though he did not know where exactly he is.

Finally, he found Thoradin's thoughts; he appeared to be very agitated, as expected of a person if he was captured. Levin quickly extended his thoughts into Thoradin's, and said, in his mind, "_Where are you? I am Levin. I am talking to you through your mind." _

He felt the dwarf's shock of being talked to in his mind, and it took a while for a clear message from his jumbled thoughts to reach Levin. "_Ho' th'hell did ya do thar? You can do magi' in this prison?"_ Levin was surprised that the dwarf's accent even carried in the mind; he had only used telepathy amongst humans or Night Elves before.

Levin took a while to relay all the information he gained regarding the prison to Thoradin, whilst Thoradin told him about his. Apparently the dwarves were thrown into a large cell, crammed full with other inmates, including various elves and gnomes, as well as two humans charged with helping "non-humans".

He also found out that they were in the so called Stockades in Stormwind itself; Levin himself has studied the infamous prison in the Library of Theramore, it was supposed to be a high-security prison for dangerous creatures or people that were too powerful to be held in a normal prison. Clearly the shift in policy had changed the prison to accommodate the "non-humans".

"_So yer got any plans for a break-out?" _asked the dwarf.

"_I can't use my magic, so I can only stay here, but if I get out of this cell, I could probably escape and rescue the rest of you here." _replied Levin.

"_So we hav' to get out and find you? Any ideas how we are gonna escape?" _asked the dwarf in a rather sarcastic tone.

"_I've got a plan. sort of. The guards around both of our cells are not being very professional; they are either chatting or sleeping. So I can "influence" the guard outside of your cell to open your cell, probably to give you some water or food or something, and then you can overpower him and escape."_

"_Why don' you do this telepathic thin' wit your guard then?" _asked the dwarf.

"_He's asleep, I can't exactly "influence" him in his mind to wake up, and he probably has some specific order not to open this cell anyway."_

"_Grr… fine, give us som' time to prepare, yer better practice your magic a bit! We don' want to lose our heads cos of yer!"_ the dwarf replied after some thought, probably talking over the plan with the other inmates.

Levin used telepathy on another of the guard outside of another cell, and "influenced" him to sit down on a chair nearby, the man was surprised by what he thought was his own mind, but sat down on the chair, although he jumped up quickly afterwards.

Levin then again found Thoradin's mind, and asked him, "_Prepared?"_

The dwarf took a while to respond, but then said, "_As ready as we'll ever be…"_

Levin closed his eyes, and focused on the guard outside of Thoradin's cell, and sent his thoughts to the guard.

---

Three guards were chatting idly around a table; suddenly one of them stood up, and walked towards one of the cell doors. He took a key from his pocket, and slowly inserted it into the keyhole. One of the other guard asked, "What are you doing? We were not supposed to open any cell doors. "

"I'm just gonna give them some food." said the guard by the door.

"What? We fed them only thr…" the other guard did not finish his sentence, for at that time the guard opened the door, and all of the inmates poured out, knocking out the guards within seconds.


	16. B2: Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Breakout

Thoradin talked over the plan that Levin had suggested to the other inmates, almost all of them agreed with the plan, since all of them were former soldiers eager to break out of this prison. The only thing they lacked was weapons, but the gnome, Fizzle Mekatank, started to rummage inside his pockets. Thoradin was exasperated and said: "Why are yar lookin' for weapons in your pockets!"

The gnome replied as he pulled out small miniature pieces of what appeared to be various sort of guns, "If you must know, after we reached the wall and handed in our Steam Pistols, I used the shrink ray to shrink all of our other gear, and if I pressed this tiny reverse button on the shrinked shrink ray…" The gnome pressed down on a minuscule button, and suddenly all of the other items in his hands grew to their normal size, many of them falling to the floor, where they were picked up by the impressed inmates. "See? Bolt rifles, crossbows, my modified steam pistol, enough weapons for about twelve of us I should say." The gnome said, rather pleased at himself.

"Well, that's very… thoughtful of yer Fizzle. Now, th' people who can use these weapons, would get out first, but try and conserv' the ammunition, we might need it. The rest of yer follow behind, and try to pick up t'weapons the guards hav'. Everyone understandin' the plan?" Everyone nodded.

Thoradin closed his eyes for a moment, so as to answer Levin's enquiry about how prepared they were. He opened his eyes, nodded to the people behind him, and inserted three bolts into his bolt rifle. _They were ready._

Then they heard a guard walking towards the door, some words were exchanged between the guards, and the door opened.

Instead of firing, Thoradin charged out and used the butt of the bolt rifle to knock the guard out; whilst two other dwarves ran past him to deal with the other two guards, their face still showed shock as they fell to the ground. The two humans and one elf picked up the broadswords the guards have, whilst another dwarf took a battle-axe from the weapons rack.

The motley group of escapees quickly moved out of the guard's room, and reached a corridor, full of doors, each one of them leading to a guard's room, followed by a cell. One of the humans asked: "Should we break into the other cells?" Before Thoradin could answer, doors were flung open along the whole corridor, and guards appeared from everywhere; they had already made too much noise when the broke out.

The inmates quickly aimed using their weapons and fired, the guards were not expecting this and many of them fell to the ground. Some charged forward, but were taking care of by the humans and the elf. Within minutes, all of the guards in this section of the prison were either dead or knocked out, whilst only a few of the escapees were injured. Thoradin then ordered the rest of them to find weapons amongst the bodies, whilst the dwarves with guns went to liberate the individual cells. Thoradin picked the nearest door, and, after shouting a warning to those inside, he shot several bolts into the lock, blasting open the door. The prisoners ran out towards the corridor, where they were controlled by the former-soldiers outside.

In ten minutes all of the cells were broken open, and roughly two hundred men stood in the huge corridor, all of them with a weapon of some kind. Thoradin then ordered them to slowly move out of the corridor into the section beyond the metal door, where the guards must have rallied a large force. Thoradin grimaced, _its gonna be a bloodbath._

---

Levin waited in his cell for what seemed to be hours, he kept asking Thoradin telepathically if they were alright or to find out where they were, but Thoradin's thoughts were too jumbled up for him to see that Levin was trying to talk to him. But Levin had at least been able to gather that Thoradin was alive, and that his ever-growing band of escaped prisoners was heading in the rough direction of Levin, which he presumed was close to the exit, because Thoradin would have no way of finding out where Levin was.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of explosions, followed by shouts and the sounds of fighting. After the fighting had subsided, he heard a person outside of his cell shouting: "Whoever's in there, keep away from the door, I'm gonna use a steam pistol to blast the door open!"

There was a sudden bang, and Levin was finally able to see something other than darkness; a very small person, almost definitely a gnome. As the gnome got closer, Levin realised that it was Fizzle, the gnome under the command of Thoradin. "It's me! Levin!" he said, standing up for the first time; seemingly the spell stopping him from doing so broke when the door was blasted apart.

"You? Thoradin had been looking for you for ages! Come on, I'll take you to him." the gnome replied.

Levin followed Fizzle out into the corridor, where dozens of other mages, either elves or gnomes, were liberated from their prison cells. The gnome led Levin into another section of the prison, which was much bigger than the other corridors. "The entrance hall…" muttered Levin.

"Yep, and the humans outside locked the gate, magically, so we can't get out." said the gnome.

"Maybe I can help…" said Levin as he walked towards the gate.

"Levin!" shouted a voice near the front of the door, Levin looked there and found Thoradin directing a group of dwarves using steam pistols trying to blast the door open.

"Can yer get us out of here? We've been her' for ages, we tried to ger' the mages to help, but they are too wea' for it." said Thoradin, which eyed the area of the gate which were shot by the steam pistols; there wasn't a single scratch on it.

"I'll try…" Levin closed his eyes, and felt his way around the whole gate; it was sealed from the outside, but some elements have to be on the inside so as to strengthen the gate on both sides. The places where the magic were most concentrated on were obviously the weakest, and he found only one such spot, on the top left corner. The caster had casted another separate shield spell over the weakened area, but Levin quickly conjured an ice bolt, and sent it towards that spot. The ice bolt punched through the shield easily, and quickly blew the weakened area apart, weakening the entire spell. Levin then threw various spells at various part of the gate, which along with the continued firing of the dwarves, blew the gate _apart._

Outside, the human soldiers had erected a blockade, and behind them, stood more than fifty Inquisitors armed with guns, whilst many footmen and knights stood behind them. Before any of the ex-prisoners could charge outside, the Inquisitors fired.


	17. B2: First Interlude

Interlude: Beyond the Dark Portal

In Nethergarde Keep, a bored looking soldier watched the broken remains of the Dark Portal; it had been closed for more than fifteen years now, yet Stormwind still always garrison some soldiers in Nethergarde, the imposing castle overlooking the distant Dark Portal. The young soldier let out a loud yawn, wondering when his shift would end. When he opened eyes again, the portal had once again burst into life. Chaotic magic swerved around it, and in the middle, a dark red plain could be seen.

The soldier reached for the bell beside him, ringing it as loud as he could. In minutes, all of the soldiers were lined up on the walls of Nethergarde Keep, ready to face whatever that would come out of the Dark Portal. The commander had also sent several messengers back to Stormwind, but he knew that by the time the news reached Stormwind, the impending battle had been won or lost; depending on what would emerge from the Dark Portal.

For more than half an hour, the soldiers watched as the energy in the Portal grew ever more violent, but nothing emerged.

Until suddenly, a demonic army marched out. First came the wild Felbeasts which prayed upon magic, then came the larger demons, followed by hundreds of Blood Elves wearing crimson armour. Huge flying demons also emerged from the portal, mixed amongst them there were also dozens of Blood Elves riding black dragonhawks. Before the whole army had even went through the portal, the demons at the front had already started to attack the Keep, supported by countless spells cast by the Blood Elves and the demon warlocks behind them.

The human soldiers were aghast; before they could even react dozens of them were consumed by one huge fireball. The rest of them quickly ducked, whilst a few brave men led by the commander went down into the courtyard to secure the gate. Before they had even reached halfway, the gate was shattered as a huge spiked demon smashed his way through, using his huge spear to impale the few men standing in front of him.

Behind the huge demon, hundreds of others, led by a strange creature with the body of an elf, but it have no legs; instead he has the lower body and tail of a naga. In the demonic tongue he said to the demons around him: "Level this place, leave none alive…" The demons around him laughed, and more of them charged into the keep, butchering its defenders.s


	18. B2: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Calm before the Storm

Levin reacted quickly, more through instinct than conscious thoughts. The first piece of magic he had learnt in Theramore was levitation and the movement of objects; it had been also been drilled into his brain by the countless practices in the courtyard of Theramore, as the captain of the elite guards fired volley after volley of bullets against Levin. Before the bullets fired by the Inquisitors had reached more than halfway, Levin had already completed the spell, before the Inquisitors' very eyes, the bullets fell to the ground.

The dwarves were also surprised, but they quickly realised that it was Levin's work and immediately charged against the Inquisitors, those with guns firing as they went. None of the Inquisitors had time to reload, and they were all on the ground in seconds. The soldiers behind the Inquisitors however did not move, instead, the leading knight, presumably the leader because he wore the commander's cape, dropped his sword, an Azerothian sign of surrender. Several of his soldiers were surprised, and tried to charge against the growing throng of prisoners gathering outside the old prison. But they were quickly stopped by the soldiers around them; clearly a large number of them were completely loyal to their commander.

The prisoners were surprised, and none of them spoke a word. The commander also seemed surprised, as though he was surprised at his own actions. But he then spoke, "About time someone speaks up against the Inquisitors… tell me, how did you escape from your cells?"

Thoradin then told him about how they escaped, and told him about the Kalimdor expedition too. From the conversation, Levin learnt that the commander's name is Bain, and that he had been one of the few commanders not replaced after the new laws were passed. He had been planning a coup along with the Prince and several other generals, to replace the Inquisitorial Order and repeal the laws. As with many others, he too was astonished to learn that Levin was from Kalimdor. He then ordered his men to secure the city walls and route to Stormwind Keep from the soldiers loyal to the Inquisitors, although the coup was not supposed to be staged for several days yet; he deemed that the situation was enough to allow it to go ahead. Within an hour, the other generals in the plan as well as Prince Anduin arrived outside the Stockades.

Prince Anduin seemed unfazed that he was staging a coup against his father; instead he talked to Levin, eager to learn how the expedition reached the Eastern Kingdoms and what happened in Kalimdor since the Great Maelstrom stopped all communications between the two continents.

Levin then described to Anduin the possible return of the Burning Legion, and the various attacks staged by their followers in Kalimdor. Before Anduin could respond, a tired messenger whispered a message into Anduin's ears. He quickly stood up, and walked over to the other generals, where they were talking about their battle plans.

"Generals, our soldiers had been unable to assault the Keep; it was too heavily guarded by the Inquisitorial Order. The Keep could withstand sieges for months, so I suggest we come up with another plan." Anduin said calmly to the others. The generals stopped talking for a while, but quickly suggested several different plans.

"We could besiege it and wait for the other cities to be converted to our cause before we assault the Keep, the townspeople supports us, so we have time." suggested one of the generals.

"Perhaps a surprise attack? We could use mages to disguise our troops, and then teleport them into the Keep, where they could open the gate for the rest of the army?" suggested Bain.

"Maybe, but the Keep is full of anti-magic spells, by the time our mages completely erased their protection, they wouldn't be in any fit state to cast anything." said Prince Anduin, who had learnt all of his forces' strength and weaknesses by heart.

"If I may interrupt, I can teleport large group of people, as long there is someone to stabilise the spell with me, but even an apprentice could do that." said Levin.

"I can verif' thar." nodded Thoradin, who was on the general's council, mainly due to the fact that he was the highest ranking dwarf amongst the prisoners. The higher ranking dwarves, gnomes and elves were mostly imprisoned in separate prisons, so as to preventing them from organising resistance amongst the others.

"That could be a workable plan, but we need time to destroy their spell. So you, Levin, should rest for the rest of the day. We'll find you when we need you." Levin nodded and turned to walk away, but Anduin added: "The _problem _you say we have, its not confirmed is it?"

Levin took a second to register that Anduin was talking about the demons; the Prince probably did not wish to create panic amongst the soldiers, and said: "It's not confirmed, but it is most likely true."

Anduin nodded, and turned back to his generals to work out the specific parts of the plan.

Levin walked to a row of empty houses, where the soldiers have commandeered as rooms for the newly freed prisoners from the Stockades. Levin walked towards one of them, followed the direction given to him by one of the soldiers, and entered one of the rooms, where he fell sleep almost immediately.

---

Levin immediately woke up when someone knocked on the door; he opened the door and found a footman with a message from Prince Anduin, telling him that the magical protection around the Keep was broken, and that they now needed Levin to cast the teleport spell.

Levin walked towards the congregation of mages outside of the houses, most of them were exhausted by the continuing casting of spells required for breaking the protection over the Keep; but there were a few stronger mages who looked like they could still cast some magic.

Anduin and another thirty men or so stood beside the mages, all of them armed to the teeth, each carrying a sword and a shield, as well as two steam pistols.

Levin reached the group of mages, explained to them the need of one of them to stabilise the magical marks as he casts the spell. He then told Anduin and the chosen soldiers to be prepared, and started to cast the spell. Surprisingly, the marks came to him easily, and did not start destabilise like the time he teleported in the Plaguelands, and he quickly arranged them in a circle around the soldiers. He then focused on the region where they will be teleported to; the courtyard just behind the gates. When he opened his eyes, the soldiers and Anduin had disappeared.

The mages around him congratulated Levin on such a perfect casting of the spell, before hurrying with the rest of the troops towards the Keep, where, if the plan went smoothly, the gate should be opened. A horseman suddenly rode past Levin and the soldiers around him, shouting "Where's the King? Where's the Prince?"

One of the soldiers explained to the horseman the situation in Stormwind, whilst another asked why the horseman was so hurried.

The rider seemed shocked by the news of the coup, and said to the surrounding soldiers: "The Dark Portal had been opened, the demons are coming."

* * *

Note: The rider knew that the demons are coming because he was the last messenger to leave Nethergarde, and saw the destruction of the keep from a distance. Other messengers had already reached Anduin and the generals, but they know nothing more than that the Dark Portal had opened. 


	19. B2: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Inside the Keep

Anduin and his men suddenly appeared in the courtyard beside the gate to the keep; the few guards and Inquisitors around them didn't stand a chance as they were swiftly cut down.

"Sir," said one of Anduin's men, "Did you notice anything different around them? On their faces?" the man said rather uncertainly.

"No. You five, go up the gate house and open the gate." Anduin said. Five soldiers quickly run up the staircase. There was the sound of fighting, but it quickly abated. The gate then slowly started to open.

"Why did you ask?" Anduin asked the same soldier as he led the remainder towards up another staircase to the walls of the keep; below them they could hear the footmen massed outside of the gates charged in.

"I just thought that I saw that…their eyes are red… I think." The footman said nervously.

"Really?" Anduin was surprised, but before he could ask the footman further, they emerged onto the top of the wall. Immediately they were assailed by countless Inquisitors and guards, and in the frenzy of combat, Anduin realised that the guards and Inquisitors do have red eyes. He realised that they were no longer themselves, but had been possessed somehow. Whatever the cause that made the Inquisitors and guards, he knew the answer has to be in the throne room, where his father had spent much of his time during the last few weeks.

"Change of plans, Marcus, can you hold the fort here?" Anduin asked his second-in-command. Marcus nodded as he parried another blow from a guard.

"You," Anduin pointed at the same soldier who had first noticed the red eyes, "follow me." The young soldier nodded, and followed Anduin as he went down the stairs into the courtyard, where the two sides were fighting ferociously for control. Anduin quickly ordered another dozen footmen to follow him, and fought through the guards, to where he knew was a short-cut to the throne room.

He led the soldiers through the passageway, and entered the Royal Library, which stored countless numbers of books and scrolls regarding the history of their world. Lately however huge number of these volumes, mostly written by elves, dwarves and other "non-humans", were burnt, leaving only a fraction of its former shelves full with books.

There were few Inquisitors there, and Anduin and his men quickly dispatched them. He then led them through the passage way to the throne room, which, surprisingly, were not protected by any guards.

Anduin threw open the door, and was treated to a sight he hoped he would never see again in his lifetime.

A dozen of the King's advisors, all of their eyes flaming red, Anduin noticed, stood around a magic circle which Anduin knew would amplify their magic. In the centre of the circle, was a large circle shaped spiral of energy. Anduin know what it is; a portal to another world, where demons were waiting to invade this world. Several others oversees the work, whilst the King sat in his throne, his face looking blank but his eyes just as red as the others.

One of the overseers looked at Anduin and his men, looking at them as though he expects them to be here. He then said in a malicious tone: "Staging a coup against your father? He would be crushed if he knew…" the man smiled, and started moved his hand in a complicated pattern.

"My father would never let this happen, you bewitched him somehow." Anduin retorted, anger building up inside him.

"Really?" the man replied, "well, let's see if you can disrupt our plan then…" the man gave a satisfied grin, and quickly finished the movement of his hands; a small black orb suddenly appeared in front of him, the orb grew larger, until Anduin realised that it was a smaller version of the portal. From the portal stepped out a grotesque looking demonic warrior, which Anduin remembered from history books as a Fel Guard, behind him two more demons stepped out. The man let out a strange sounding growl, and the three demons advanced upon Anduin and his men.

One of the demons charged, knocking aside two footmen, and driving his blade into another. Anduin's sword, which was enchanted by the finest human paladin with the power of the Light, blocked the attack of another of the Fel Guard, but the other men were unable to hold their own against the demons, and within seconds half of them lay on the floor, dead.

Anduin knew that the demons were merely buying time for the warlocks to continue strengthening the portal; if the portal was completed, more demons would pour out.

Anduin managed to hold ground against the Fel guard, whilst the other two demons were each attacked by three footmen. From the distance Anduin could also hear the sound of fighting growing closer.

Anduin had to disrupt the portal somehow, and so he threw his shield into the demon's face; the demon was distracted for a second, but that was enough for Anduin to slash at the demon's arm. The demon howled with rage, and tried to use its blade to cut Anduin's head off, Anduin ducked, and quickly ran towards the portal, slashing at the few casters around it.

By wounding the casters, the portal was disrupted, and the man who had summoned the demons, obviously the leader and the most powerful one, has to join in the circle, in order to calm the spell. With almost all of the warlocks concentrating on the portal, Anduin easily dispatched the few guards trying to fend him off, as well as avoiding the spells the warlocks would occasionally send as they tried to finish the portal as well as killing Anduin.

The Fel Guard which had battled Anduin now came closer to him again, this time determined to kill him. Before the demon's blade could reach him, he stabbed wildly with his sword into the magic circle, hoping to damage the portal by wounding another warlock; surprisingly, as soon as his sword was in the magic circle, the enchanted blade destroyed the dark spell almost completely.

The warlocks were forced back by the feedback caused by the spell, and a few were even knocked out by the pure implosion of power, and the demons were sucked back in the Twisting Nether, having lost its anchor to the material world when the portal was destroyed.

The four footmen still remaining sighed with relief, as the few remaining conscious warlocks were dispatched by Anduin, his sword now spattered with blood.

Anduin dropped his sword, and ran to his father, who had remained still throughout the entire battle. Anduin tried to talk to him, but King Varian remained still.

Suddenly, more footmen led by a captain charged into the throne room. As soon as he saw them, Anduin nearly shouted: "Find a priest! Or a mage, or someone that can heal!"

The captain was shocked by the Prince's outburst, but said: "But sir…"

"WHAT?" shouted Anduin without turning back to the captain, angry at the fact that the captain had not registered that his father was ill, extremely ill.

"Sir, the demons are coming." The captain said breathlessly; Anduin raised his head this time, his face full of shock.


	20. B2: Second Interlude

Interlude: Demonic Deceptions

In a small clearing in the Great Plaguelands, the Dreadlord Varimathras stood, waiting for his brother, Balnazzar the Shadowlord to appear. Most people had thought that Balnazzar was killed by the agents of the Alliance, and they were right; Balnazzar was killed, but Kil'jadin and Varimathras, using a mix of warlock and necromancer magic, brought Balnazzar back as a Shadowlord, more powerful than ever. Balnazzar had, during the fifteen years since the continents were separated by the Maelstrom, possessed another member of the decimated Scarlet Crusade, gradually forging it once again into a considerable force in the Plaguelands.

Varimathras knew that a Scarlet Crusade force was camped nearby, so it should seem definite that Balnazzar will arrive soon; but ever since his return as a Shadowlord, he has _changed. _Of course, he is still fanatically loyal to the Burning Legion, and has used the Scarlet Crusade to good effect against the Undead Scourge. But he had been gradually becoming dismissive of Varimathras, as though he believed that Varimathras and his Forsaken were responsible for the defeats suffered by the Burning Legion years ago.

Wind suddenly picked up in the small clearing, and Varimathras knew that his brother is arriving. At first there was nothing, but then the wind turned _black, _it circled Varimathras, and then went back to his front, where the blackness condensed into a solid form; Balnazzar still retained much of his demon body, although his armour had become black, and now he could cast dark spells that Varimathras could only dream of.

"Have you made contact?" asked Balnazzar simply.

"Not yet, but I have my scouts circling round the general area where they should have landed." replied Varimathras.

"When you do, make sure they trust in you, pretend to lead them to the Undercity. Before they get there, destroy them." said Balnazzar.

"Of course, but what if they don't trust me? The night elves and humans would never trust the Forsaken, let alone me!" replied Varimathras; he hadn't even agreed to the plans in the first place, he had preferred that Lord Kil'jadin destroying the expedition at sea.

"The orcs will trust you, and that is enough; you are their only allies here. Should you succeed, Lord Kil'jadin will finally trust you and entrust you with greater more important tasks." replied Balnazzar,

"Lord Kil'jadin doesn't trust me?" Varimathras was surprised; he had served the Burning Legion loyally for centuries, even whilst he was under the command of the Dark Lady he had gradually shaped the Forsaken for the Burning Legion's purposes.

"He does not; he trusts no-one that leaves the Burning Legion. Your information and the Forsaken had been useful, but not enough." Balnazzar replied.

Varimathras was going to respond, but suddenly in his mind, one of his subordinates who were tasked with finding the expedition had sent a brief reply to him; _we found them._

"They found them." said Varimathras simply.

"Good, go there, I doubt your _subordinates _could make first contact themselves." Balnazzar then shifted back to his human form as Varimathras disappeared, leaving only a few flames amongst the undergrowth, "And I've got to lead this human rabble to deal with the Scourge…"


	21. B2: Chapter 9

R&R please!

* * *

Chapter 9: Before the Battle

Panic spread across the soldiers when they heard the messenger's words; some of the older veterans had either served in Nethergarde Keep or even been stationed in Outland itself, they remembered their old comrades slaughtered by the demons, and the horrible sights they had witnessed. Levin was also surprised; he had deduced that the Burning Legion had infiltrated Stormwind to splinter what remained of the Alliance, yet he didn't count on the demons to invade by the most obvious way. In Kalimdor the Burning Legion did not invade one place with a huge army, but in small groups and mainly operating through their various agents, devastating the countryside and putting fear amongst the inhabitants of Kalimdor.

The messenger then rode off to find the generals, whilst the small group of soldiers were led by their captain to the city walls. Levin followed the messenger as he rode towards the Stockades, where it still remained as base of the generals.

When the ride told his message to general Bain, he quickly burst into action. All of the soldiers not committed to the attack on Stormwind Keep were ordered to man the walls, whilst dozen more riders were sent to the various towns and villages around Stormwind, to warn them of the demon invasion.

Thoradin the dwarf also burst into action, one of his brothers was trapped with an Alliance army in Outland when it was sealed off. He quickly led a small group of gnomes and dwarves towards another road, Levin decided to follow the dwarf to see what he was going to do.

Before Levin could say anything, the dwarf said: "Nice to have yer back, how did te teleport go?"

"It was fine. Where are you going? You do know that the demons are coming, right?" asked Levin.

"Of course we do, and we are gonna do our bit!" said one of the gnomes beside Thoradin, who Levin only realised now was Fizzle, the gnome who found Levin in the Stockades. "We are going to the Deeprun Tram, and try to contact Ironforge!" said the excited gnome.

Levin remembered reading about the Deeprun Tram in Theramore; it was a tunnel system linking Stormwind with Ironforge, with wagons powered by gnomish machineries that could transport people to and from the two places dozens of times everyday.

But when they reached the entrance, they found the gates barred and a large poster stuck on it declaring this an illegal building. Levin summoned a fireball and blasted the shut gates apart.

Thoradin turned to Levin as they walked down the dusty corridors into a room full of mechanical gears and controls, most of them on the floor and covered with dusts; clearly this place had been empty of people for months, and had been trashed by the Inquisitors completely. "Watch this." the dwarf said proudly.

The gnomes and dwarves quickly began rummaging around what must once been an impressive looking control room; Fizzle quickly brushed away several layers dust from a table, and said: "I found it! Look!"

Levin was a little puzzled about what the small black circle-shaped thing does; in Kalimdor there were some gnome- and goblin-made items, but they were few and far between.

The gnome saw Levin's puzzled look, and explained: "This is a communicator; this lets us talk to Ironforge, and them vice versa. It only works if there was someone in Ironforge listening to their communicator though." The gnome said something in gnomish to the communicator, but no-one responded.

Thoradin's face suddenly light up and said, "Levin, yer know the location of Ironforge, right?"

Levin nodded, straining to remember the old maps which his Mother had used to teach him about the Eastern Kingdoms.

"Then yer can telepor' us there! And we can ask for help! There should be enough gnome mage there t'telepor' us wit' reinforcements back…" the dwarf said excitedly.

"Maybe…" replied Levin, who was feeling the strain of casting powerful spells continuously.

Five minutes later, Levin, Thoradin and two of the gnomes disappeared in a hail of magic.

---

General Bain was feeling the strain of organizing an entire city against a threat they don't think would threaten them ever again. The city's garrison was already bolstered by the troops coming in from the various fortresses and watch-towers around Stormwind, but he had to send some of them away to protect the towns. All in all, the army massed in Stormwind amounted to a little under five thousand me, but a large part of them were inexperienced militias; only about two thousand were professional soldiers, and most of them were already tired out fighting against the forces under the Inquisitors.

He really wished he had some dwarven riflemen or some elven mages, even the inventions from the Tech-Union would be useful. Of the prisoners liberated from the Stockades, only about a hundred of them are willing to fight for Stormwind, most of them chose to seek shelter in the newly-conquered Stormwind Keep, where there are many hidden passageways where hundreds of people could hide, and thousands more could live in the huge spaces in the keep.

Most of the populace of Stormwind were also sheltered in Stormwind Keep, although some were determined to stay in their homes; few of the citizens had been able to escape further north, due to the great speed the Burning Legion had reached Stormwind.

Bain had heard that Levin and some others had teleported to Ironforge to find reinforcements, but he doubted that they would get here before the battle would begin. Teleporting an entire army would be impossible, and if the army tried to march to Stormwind's aide, only the gryphons and some of the prototype gnomish flying machines could reach here in one day.

Prince Anduin himself had drawn up the battle-plan; the bulk of the army would be placed the walls, with small number of troops manning vital streets, in case the wall was taken. The human mages were placed near the gates, for it would there the demons would try to attack the hardest; the few gryphons in Stormwind were housed in the highest tower of the Keep, where they could attack the enemy flyers.

The force which the Burning Legion had amassed outside of Stormwind is huge, the scouts had estimated a force of 15,000 would be committed to attack Stormwind, whilst many other smaller forces were sent to assault other cities; Fel Guards formed the bulk of it, mixed amongst them are the Blood Elves, Pit Lords, Fel Beasts and many others. The Eredar warlocks and Dreadlords stood behind them; their roles are both commanders and the army's main magic support. Huge demons that haven't even been seen by humans before were lined up in front of the Fel Guards, looking as though they themselves could destroy the defences the humans had erected. On the skies flying demons and Blood Elves riding corrupted Dragonhawks patrolled the battle lines, shouting taunts at the humans.

General Bain walked along the wall, talking and encouraging the soldiers, hoping that their defence would hold. He remembered the events of the past two days, and grimaced at the thought of how much change Stormwind had suffered since then.

Without a warning, the demons of the Burning Legion charged, eager for the blood of the humans.


	22. B2: Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Battle of Stormwind

The huge demons at the front of demon army charged across the short distance between them and the walls, and swung their burning fists against the walls, producing cracks in the wall which few would ever thought crumble The taller demons would sweep their huge hands on the wall, throwing dozens of human soldiers into the distance every time. The mages placed on the walls were unable to defeat the huge demons by themselves, and only with the aide of several catapults did they manage to kill one of the huge demons. The Blood Elves riding dragonhawks swooped down, throwing spells into the hapless defenders. The gryphon riders tried to help, but they unable to match the corrupted Dragonhawks' ferociousness or their advantage in numbers, and were soon beaten back.

Small portals suddenly appeared in front of the demon army, and from the portals emerged huge siege machines pulled by the large Mo'arg demons; which serves as the engineers and builders of the Burning Legion. Flying above the newly emerged siege machines are the Tothrezim, craftsmen for the demons, operating the fel artillery placed upon the huge towers. The humans fired fire arrows and stones were hurled from the catapults, the few cannons they still have also fired. The demon's siege towers seem to be immune to fire, and the gaping holes wrought by the cannons and catapults were quickly surrounded by the flying Tothrezim, who quickly started to repair it. In minutes the siege towers were good as new, and as soon as they were within range, they started to fire huge burning stones against Stormwind.

The damage caused by the burning stones were horrific, but then, the stones _stood up _from their craters, and spread themselves to their full height; they were Infernals, demons that are made by the Tothrezim which could smash their way through anything.

The few soldiers not on the city walls tried to fight the Infernals in the city, as many more are launched by the siege towers. Now the Eredar warlocks at the back of the line also joined in, summoning even more Infernals from the skies above Stormwind.

Then, one of the huge demons still attacking the city walls, broke through the wall itself, and charged inside the city, smashing houses and soldiers as though they were toys. The Fel Guards which had only advanced slowly suddenly started to run, and hundreds poured into the hole. At the same time, the siege towers reached the walls, and the demons already placed inside stormed outside into unto the walls, killing any soldiers standing in their way.

The Blood Elf riding on the oldest Dragonhawk was Prince Furiden Darkstrider, Ruler of Blood Elves and Nagas, smiled as he saw the demons wrecked havoc amongst the defenders. He called to his loyal guards around him to follow him as he guided his Dragonhawk towards the Keep at the centre of the city, unleashing countless number of spells at the many houses around them; even casting the simple spells gave him exhilaration, many humans would call the Blood Elves' compulsive needs for magic an addiction, but he saw it more as a way of life, a way of life that would spread all across the hundreds of worlds that the Burning Legion would conquer, including Azeroth. He smiled as he conjured a fireball and threw it against a foolish human riding a gryphon trying to stop their advance towards the Keep; Stormwind would fall, the first of many others.

---

General Bain watched as he saw the huge siege towers latching on to the city walls, and the demons that poured out of them butchering the soldiers standing in front of them. Bain drew his sword and charged into the fray, knocking one demon down with his shield and stabbed another Fel Guard's unprotected chest. The surviving soldiers around him rallied together, and managed to hold the demons off in their section of the line. But in the adjacent sectors, Bain saw that the demons were at an advantage, and only the occasional spells cast by the mages held the demons back. In several places the humans were already retreating.

One of the soldiers beside Bain suddenly screamed; his entire body was surrounded by fire. Yet although the fire clearly caused agonising pain for the soldier, the others around him could feel nothing. The soldier gave one last cry, and fell down. The small gap the fallen body had created was enough for the demons, and a Fel Guard charged through, knocking two soldiers down the wall. Bain parried a blow from another demon, and shouted "Retreat, back to the main street!" The five men near Bain responded, and quickly went down the stairs; Bain followed them, confident that the magical protections protecting the stairs would prevent the demons from following them.

There was a sudden bang, Bain looked back up, and was pleased to see a demon had been incinerated as he tried to chase the humans down the stairs. Bain and his men reached the courtyard, where they saw the infernal demons running rampage around the city, barely contained by the defenders.

Bain led his men into the main street, where three Infernals had already completely destroyed the blockade the soldiers had set up earlier. Several men under the command of a captain were trying to take on of the burning demons, but they couldn't get close enough to land a blow to the demons. Bain charged at the demon with his soldiers following behind him. Thankfully, the infernal was facing the other soldiers, and Bain managed thrust his sword in the ankle of the demon. The Infernal turned around in surprise, this small reprieve allowed the others to finish off the Infernal. As the flames on the Infernal died down and the rocks forming it fell to the ground, Bain looked towards the walls, which the demons had almost completely taken.

Demons appeared at the head of the main street, Bain and the soldiers formed a ragged battle line, ready to face the demons once more.

---

Prince Anduin pulled his sword out of a fallen demon and looked at the soldiers around him. There were only a dozen or so left from the platoon of men he had taken charge of. Anduin only hoped that the others fared better than them; the battle had been going on for hours, and by now they only control Stormwind Keep and the area around it.

In the distance, Anduin heard the demons gave a terrifying shout, and he knew, that the demons would charge once more, and this time, Anduin wasn't sure that their defences would hold.


	23. B2: Epilogue

Epilogue

Levin muttered the incantation that would teleport him, Thoradin and the two gnomes to Ironforge. Although he himself could not remember the exact location of Ironforge, the telepathic link between him and Thoradin was still intact, and from Thoradin's mind, he extracted the location of Ironforge.

As he muttered the words, he could feel the components of the teleport spell forming in his mind. To the others, the time it took for Levin to form the spell and teleport them seems no more than a few seconds, but to him with his enhanced magical senses, it was almost eternity. Levin's surroundings started to blur, and he knew that they were teleporting.

The surroundings gradually blurred more, until nothing was left other than a faint greyish tinge. Then, the greyish background slowly became more colourful, and Levin knew that they would soon arrive at their destination.

Levin relaxed his hold on the spell, knowing that the matrices he had formed already would take care of the rest. Before he had even completely pulled himself out of the spell, another, more powerful spell enveloped him. Levin was shocked, he had never heard of anything that could affect someone in mid-teleportation; there were anti-magic spells, but they stop teleportation altogether, even the thought of teleporting to a protected place would cause enough feedback to knock the mage out.

Levin then realised that the spell was only holding him in place, the dwarf and the gnomes were all continuing to Ironforge, unaware that Levin was trapped in the nothingness between the two destinations.

As Levin tried to find weak point in the spell binding him, another spell were cast upon him; a teleportation spell that would bring Levin to the caster. Levin tried to stop it, but soon realised that it was hopeless. Instead he constructed several offensive spells' matrices in his head, prepared to unleash them against whoever was casting the spells.

As the surroundings grew gradually clearer, Levin realised that he was being teleported to a desert; there were no deserts in the Eastern Kingdoms, so the other caster has to be in Kalimdor, probably in Tanaris; where the desert stretched as far as the eye could see.

The spell holding Levin suddenly dissipated, allowing Levin to accelerate the teleporting process and to change the place of his arrival slightly, so that he would appear behind the caster.

When he was completely teleported, Levin saw that the caster, a human judging by his size, was not alone, beside him there was an orc, and perched on a large piece of rock, was a medium sized bronze dragon. All of them were looking at where Levin would have been teleported.

Levin conjured a fireball already formed in his mind; the sound of the fire cackling startled the human, orc and dragon. The caster turned around, and Levin saw himself looking at him.

The fireball dissipated without a sound.


	24. Book 3: Prologue

Prologue

Levin stood there, unable to absorb the fact that the person looking at him was almost exactly like him, apart a few scars and a grimmer look on his face. The orc and the bronze dragon had turned around too, and Levin saw that both also bore scars and wounds; the ones on the dragon were especially obvious, scales were torn off, exposing the bloody soft flesh beneath, and its wings were bent at an awkward angle.

Levin then passed his eyes over the orc, and gasped. The orc was almost identical to another orc that Levin knew, except that he also sported many scars, and rather than the orc's trademark battle axe, he carried a broadsword covered with strange glowing runes, running from the tip to the hilt. Levin briefly wondered where Durokar could have gotten himself a magical broadsword, but quickly pushed that thought out of his mind; far more important was who the human, orc and dragon are, and why did they teleport Levin here.

Before Levin could open his mouth, the other human spoke: "I suppose you are going to ask who we are, and why we took you here?" The man gave an uneasy smile at Levin, and continued: "I am you, and Durokar here is the same one you knew, and this dragon here, is Chromie, of the Bronze Dragonflight, and possibly the last guardian of the Caverns of Time." The dragon nodded, but chose not to speak.

Levin was shocked, how can that Levin be Levin, when himself was here, and why would Durokar be in Tanaris, when he was in the Eastern Kingdoms with the expedition. But he was also intrigued by the fact that the bronze dragon was the last guardian of the Caverns of Time; Levin thought that there were at least a dozen bronze dragons guarding the Cavern at all timer, and sometimes even **Nozdormu**, the Aspect of Time would stay near the entrance, making it almost impossible for intruders to reach inside the Cavern. "How can you be me? And why is Chromie the last Guardian of the Cavern? This Cavern is their home!" Levin said. "This," The other Levin said, "is your future. Look around you." Levin looked around, and saw for miles around his position, the bodies of thousands of demons and hundreds of Bronze Dragons, all lying still in the sands of Tanaris. "What happened here?" said Levin, shocked that the Burning Legion had attacked the home of Bronze Dragonflight; surely they can't have overwhelmed Durotar and Mulgore... "You are one year in the future, during those twelve months the Burning Legion had conquered Azeroth, even defeating the Four Aspects. This is why we brought you here; to change the future." 


End file.
